Covid was an odd time in our lives, wasn’t it?
I remember drinking alone with friends on Zoom, clapping and banging pots and pans outside our front doors at 7pm. Looking back, it all seems rather surreal.
But while the world had seemingly come to a standstill, the bills still needed paying. Mortgages, rent, finance payments and all the everyday costs of living didn’t simply disappear because we were in lockdown.
Not everyone qualified for furlough, especially those who were self-employed.
We met a customer shortly after lockdown who had been hit particularly hard. They were self-employed, business had dried up and money was getting tighter by the month.
Eventually, missed finance payments caught up with them and their company car was repossessed. There wasn’t much they could do except hand over the keys.
Handing back the keys was one thing, but they still needed a car. Business hadn’t bounced back, money was tight and although lockdown was over, the world hadn’t quite rebooted yet.
They gave me a call and explained what had happened.
They’d scraped together what they could. It wasn’t much, certainly not enough for the car they would normally have chosen, but their priorities had changed.
They weren’t looking for anything fancy. They just needed something affordable, reliable and practical enough to get them from A to B for the next 12 months while they got their business back on its feet.
So that’s what we worked towards.
There was no point showing them cars they couldn’t afford or trying to stretch their budget. They’d already been through enough without taking on another financial headache.
Sometimes the car you want and the car you need are two very different things. And there’s nothing wrong with buying something basic to get you through a difficult period.
We’ve all had times when things haven’t quite gone to plan. Losing a job, changing careers, a relationship ending or, in this case, a global pandemic. Your circumstances change and sometimes your choice of car has to change with them.
At National Car Finder, we don’t expect everyone to have a huge budget or be looking for their dream car. Tell us what you need, how much you’ve got to spend and we’ll see what we can find.
After all, a car doesn’t need to be expensive to be the right car for you.
National Car Finder. We Find. You Drive.