Looking for car payment relief amid coronavirus? Auto dealerships ‘scared,’ too.
Used car transactions in Lexington have not been happening at their normal pace since the COVID-19 pandemic. They might be non-existent for the foreseeable future.
Auto dealerships were to close by 8 p.m. Monday, per Gov. Andy Beshear’s latest executive order. Most of the more than a dozen dealerships the Herald-Leader contacted Monday were still sorting out how they planned to handle their closures, the end date of which was to be determined.
Most lots have had fewer walk-ins than normal and sold fewer cars in the last week despite taking extreme measures to help reduce foot traffic and person-to-person contact.
“Ever since the restaurants shut down and this chaos, it’s kind of died off,” said José Rolon, owner of Galaxy Auto Sales. “ ... The smaller lots live off servers and that middle-to-lower income person that just right now isn’t working.”
Normally, Rolon said, his lot sells anywhere from 8-10 cars in a week. It sold two last week.
“With two, I can defend myself, cover the employees and stuff, but with a shutdown I’m gonna have to lay off five guys from work,” he said.
Rolon already felt the force of the state government last week when Beshear ordered hair salons to close. He owns two in Lexington.
“My family, since they shut down the salons, they came over here to see what they could do to help and now that this is closed, it’s complete chaos right now,” Rolon said.
Big Blue Auto, at 537 East New Circle Road, over the past week has been doing most of its loan qualifications over the phone and through email prior to a customer’s visit in order to get them on and off the lot as quickly as possible.
“We’re not trying to flood the sales floor,” said Jim Hall, a salesperson at Big Blue Auto. “Everything’s appointment-based, 100 percent. We’ve got masks, sanitizer everywhere.”
Walk-ins have been more uncomfortable. Hall recounted an experience with a woman who did not appear to be well, and because his desk does not separate people within 6 feet of one another, he had to ask her to sit farther away on a couch while he processed her information.
In light of evictions being halted in Kentucky, people also have been contacting dealerships attempting to pause their car payments. They’re concerned that customers to whom they made recent sales might not make their first payment, which could result in whoever made that sale not earning what could be their final commission check for a while.
“Whoever’s holding the note, we’re having to do double-time work to try and get it in,” Hall said. “ ... We have a lot of people calling in and saying, ‘Well, I don’t really wanna make my car payment because of this.’ And we just ask, ‘Can you afford this car payment?’ and they’ll say, ‘Well I got some money put up but I don’t really want to.’ So what do you do? ... We’re scared. It is what it is.”
Larger dealerships in Lexington were contacted multiple times by the Herald-Leader but could not be reached for comment.
