The corona crisis forces us to work from home wherever possible and also to arrange various other matters remotely. The purchase of a new car is now also done a bit more remotely. The Vauxhall boss thinks that this course of events may become the norm even after the crisis.
We should all stay home as much as possible. At the moment, you really only have to go out for groceries and even that is increasingly possible via delivery services. More than ever before, we find out how much we can control from home via our phone or computer. That even applies to the purchase of a new car, Vauxhall boss Stephen Norman illustrates. In conversation with Coach he explains that Vauxhall currently sells new cars to the British almost exclusively by telephone. Although the sales are of course very disappointing at the moment, it still continues that way.
Norman says he also works for a few hours a day in Vauxhall’s quickly set up telephone sales service. He thinks it works remarkably well and thinks it is a prelude to a major change in car sales. “I think buyers will continue to do this (after the corona crisis, ed.). Before the epidemic, this happened in the food and clothing industry. Now it is coming to the auto industry,” said Norman. He does not think that the dealers will disappear completely, but he does suspect that much more will be arranged remotely and that people will almost only come to the dealer to eventually collect their car. Dealers may be greatly simplified. Norman warns that buying a new car ‘should not be boring’.