Car showrooms reopen across Shropshire
Dramatic changes to ensure customers feel safe and confident to visit car dealerships again have been rolled out as showrooms reopened their doors this week.
After a 10-week wait, car dealers across the region finally reopened their doors again to the public yesterday after working incredibly hard to ensure their showrooms are Covid-19 secure.
Now bosses are hoping for a surge in business after sales of new cars in the UK fell by more than 97 per cent last month as the coronavirus crisis shut showrooms and manufacturers shuttered factories.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) predicts that there will be just 1.68 million new car registrations this year, the lowest since 1992.
Dave Farthing, managing director of Furrows which has branches in Shrewsbury, Telford and Oswestry, said: "We are delighted to be opening again after closing our sites on March 23. There seems to be a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.
"A small part of our sales team is back. We will bring more back as and when the demand requires it.
"We have taped off areas, put stickers on the floor and got ropes splitting up the showroom to encourage social distancing.
"We have also got screens on the desks separating the sales person and the customer.
"The showroom is cleaned constantly and we have got sanitising stations everywhere.
"We have already seen some people wondering in and looking comfortable, while others have come in with masks and look a little bit wary.
"We missed out on huge turnover whilst we have been closed so we need to catch up.
"I think we will see a surge, which hopefully we can maintain, and then I can see it levelling out."
Nigel Williams, managing director of Arthurs which has branches in Oswestry and Newtown, said: "It’s great to be able to reopen our Oswestry showroom and we expect to get back up to speed very quickly. We’ve spent a great deal of time and money making our premises safe for showroom visitors and our staff.
"We’ve seen an increase in enquiries both locally, and from over the border in Wales, where showrooms are still closed for at least the next three weeks. It’s an unusual position to be in to have showrooms in both England and Wales – with different guidelines and laws between the two countries relating to working and travel restrictions.
"Our Oswestry dealership is now open seven days a week for test drives – with all cars fully sanitised between customers, a one-way system, and our service and repair centre is open as usual, with social distancing, safe key drop off and car sanitising facilities in place, as it has been throughout lockdown as key workers in particular have needed to make sure their cars are in good order. We’re also giving people peace of mind by checking out their vehicles if they’ve been parked up for a long period of time.
"We’ve invested further in our website during the lockdown, and added a full ‘end-to-end’ buy online function. The trend for online purchases has even extended to the motor trade. We sold five cars through this facility in the last weekend alone.
"I’d like to thank all of our customers and staff for their patience over the lockdown period and wish everyone well – it’s been a difficult time.
"In rural areas people are even more dependent on their cars for essential travel, and we’ve been pleased to be able to help make sure that those people who still need to travel for work, food shopping or medical care have been able to rely on their vehicles. As we move out of lockdown we’re anticipating high demand as people start to enjoy the freedom to travel again."
