CAR dealers and the National Franchised Dealers Association has expressed dismay that they will once again have to close their doors as we head into a second national lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
They are particularly angry that garden centres will be allowed to stay open while car dealerships will be forced to close on Thursday until December 2 at least.
The National Franchised Dealers Association had urged the Prime Minister not to include dealers in any lockdown given that that have invested huge amount of money to make showrooms Covid secure while many have large premises social distancing is easy to achieve.
Following the Prime Minister’s annoucement on Saturday, some dealer group bosses took to twitter to express their views.
Marshall Motor Group Chief Executive Daksh Gupta said: “Why can garden centres remain open and car showrooms with more space and fewer visitors can’t? This is a £82bn industry that employs over 800,000 people.”
The NFDA said: “Shutting down vehicle showrooms will not only damage the livelihoods of the 590,000 people employed in vehicle retail, it will reduce car sales to the point where the car factories will have to stop production, impacting the 168,000 people employed in vehicle manufacturing.”
It added that Germany’s lockdown allows dealers to continue to operate.
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