More than three-quarters (76%) of ready-to-buy shoppers plan to visit a motor show in the next three months despite ongoing coronavirus risks.
Of those who do go to a retailer, 78% said the new Omicron variant hasn’t impacted their decision, while the rest are waiting for case numbers to drop before visiting.
The majority (74%) of those who will not be visiting a showroom in the next three months indicated that they are not planning to visit and that the new variant has not influenced their decision. A quarter (24%) said they decided to postpone a showroom visit because of Omnicron.
Research of 1,403 buyers in the market was conducted by What Car? accomplished.
Steve Huntingford, editor of What Car? said: “Despite a new Covid variant, buyer confidence in dealers remains extremely high, with the majority aiming to visit a showroom by March.
“This shows that the work the sector has been doing during the pandemic has paid off as shoppers are confident traders are safe places to visit. It is important that showrooms continue to apply Covid measures as most shoppers still want to see social distancing and hygiene measures when visiting.”
Shoppers remain “very confident” that showrooms can continue to operate safely even with the new, more easily transmissible variant of COVID. From all of What Car? Of shoppers surveyed, 94% said they trust showrooms to be run in a COVID-safe manner. This is almost identical to last spring when What Car? asked the same question, with 95% believing that showrooms are safe places to visit.
The research also found that 72% of shoppers would avoid visiting a showroom if proper COVID measures were not in place there, including social distancing guidelines, hygiene stations and staff and customers being required to wear a mask.
A quarter (25%) of UK car dealerships started 2022 with over 15% absenteeism as the Omicron variant continued to grow in cases, an AM survey has found.
The survey, conducted just days after the UK government changed testing guidelines to prevent staff shortages from crippling the economy, showed 44% of auto retail companies were “moderately” affected by COVID-related absenteeism of up to 15% was.
Ahead of Christmas, AM reported that rising cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 are exposing anti-vaccination as one of auto retail’s biggest business disrupters.
