While authorities initially considered vehicle maintenance and repair an essential business with keeping their service bays open, that mandate is changing.
In new guidance, the federal government deems vehicle sales as an essential service. The move paves the way for dealerships to reopen their showrooms. Intense lobbying by groups like the National Automobile Dealers Association is behind the push to reopen retail operations. Previously, only service departments were considered essential, with daily rental and leasing added later.
New rules federal recommendation only
According to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency guidelines “workers critical to the manufacturing, distribution, sales, rental, leasing, repair, and maintenance of vehicles and other transportation equipment, including electric vehicle charging stations, and the supply chains that enable these operations to facilitate continuity of travel-related operations for essential workers.”
The revised guidance is a federal recommendation only. A government official stressed that the final decision to open dealerships for retail sales remains with state and local governments. Christopher Krebs, director of CISA, said it is up to those authorities “who must determine how to balance public health and safety with the need to maintain critical infrastructure in their communities.”
Guidelines vary state to state
While the federal government sees service, along with sales, daily rentals and leasing as essential, not all the local jurisdictions are consistent. In some instances, dealers have chosen to close down their entire operations. It’s best to check your local dealer to see what type of operations are open if you are in the market to buy or have your car serviced.
Another option is to buy a car online. More dealerships are making the entire experience — from a video walk-around of the car to obtaining finance and even delivering the vehicle to your house — possible without setting foot on the lot. A program like Kelley Blue Book’s Dealer Home Services can help you connect with participating stores to save time and reduce complexity.
How long will the lockdowns last?
In most states, shelter-in-place requirements will begin to expire around April 30. They may lift sooner in places not hard hit by the pandemic. Other hot spots, like New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California, may extend as long as June 1. Virginia announced that its guidelines for staying at home will run to June 10.
CarMax closes stores
Used-car retailer CarMax has closed 44 of its locations as a result of COVID-19. Most of these locations (27) are in California. CarMax also shut down stores in Pennsylvania (5), Nevada (4), New York (3) and two stores each in Florida and New Jersey and one in Georgia.
The earliest locations to reopen are Florida and Pennsylvania on March 27. Georgia reopens April 7. Nevada comes back online on April 17 and New York on April 19. The California and New Jersey properties remain closed until further notice.
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