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Two-thirds of car buyers waiting for dealers to reopen before purchasing a car

Car showrooms reopen on April 12, but most have implemented online sales.

Published
Motorpoint Chingford

The vast majority of potential car buyers are waiting for dealerships to reopen on April 12 before making a purchase, according to a new study.

An online survey of 1,781 people by independent car retailer Motorpoint found that 75 per cent were holding off on buying a new car until they can see it in person.

That’s despite the fact most car dealers have implemented online selling practises over the past year as coronavirus lockdowns closed all ‘non-essential’ retail services.

Car Dealer Key Handover
(Blackball Media)

Mark Carpenter, chief executive officer of Motorpoint, said: “We are thrilled to be welcoming visitors into our stores in England and Wales once again.

“We have been incredibly busy over recent months supporting customers across the UK to buy online with our contactless Home Delivery and Reserve & Collect services, but nothing beats seeing your customers face to face and I know our teams in England and Wales can’t wait to once again be helping customers in person.

“We’ve had a really strong response from the public to our reopening in Scotland on Easter Monday and we are looking forward to it being equally busy in-store in England and Wales when we fully reopen our branch network next week.”

This data backs up other recent research that indicates car dealers could see a boom in business this summer. Online car marketplace Auto Trader published research this week that indicated Brits had saved a total of £18 billion during the pandemic for reasons such as not eating out or going on holiday.

Its study indicated that 41 per cent of people were considering using their extra cash to buy a new car.

Auto Trader also reported that March was its biggest ever for web traffic, with more than 290 million adverts viewed.

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