Showroom shutdown leads Calif. dealer to ramp up online retailing

When California dealer Inder Dosanjh woke up in the middle of the night last week, he thought for a brief moment that the coronavirus and its impact on his business was all just a bad dream.

"It took me five minutes to realize it was not a nightmare," Dosanjh told Automotive News.

Dosanjh, dealer principal at Dosanjh Family Auto Group, has 17 dealerships and more than 1,000 employees in the San Francisco Bay Area. All his dealerships last week had to obey county orders to shelter in place. That meant showrooms had to close, but service departments could stay open.

While many surrounding dealerships closed, Dosanjh said he sought clarity from local officials instead of shutting down his sales operations completely.

"If you have takeout food, why can't you home-deliver cars?" he wondered.

Policymakers told him the ordinance allowed dealerships to sell cars online and deliver them to customers. So Dosanjh kicked his home delivery operation into a higher gear. He already had two trailers for such deliveries and bought three more Tuesday, March 17. Most of his trailers carry one vehicle at a time, but one of them holds five vehicles.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a stay-at-home order across the state later in the week, which led to confusion whether that order preempted local orders and whether auto sales were prohibited. As of Friday afternoon, Dosanjh put vehicle deliveries on hold. "Things are changing by the hour," he said.

Sales and Internet managers at his dealerships representing General Motors' brands were facilitating online sales last week through the automaker's Shop-Click-Drive tool. Managers at his stores representing other brands put together remote purchases manually using phone calls and videoconferencing. Dosanjh expected to add a "buy online" link to his website this week to help streamline the process.

The shift toward online sales is likely permanent, Dosanjh said.

"I don't think business will ever be normal from here on out. This will force us to look online," he said. "In the end, something good will come out of it."

But there will be pain felt along the way. Dosanjh says vehicle sales at his group will take a hit, but his service departments were staying busy as of the middle of last week.

"People are in a panic, so everyone is trying to get their car serviced," he said. "We're busy. All stores are tracking more than what I did last year in service."

And it wasn't just critical repair work. Customers were getting routine maintenance done as well. "It's crazy," he said.

Dosanjh still expects to make money in March. The company had been on track for a record month.

"Financially, we're solid. We have a lot of help from manufacturers. They are giving us cash advances," he said.

If his showrooms are able to reopen in early April, the group could come out OK, Dosanjh said. But if not, "April is going to be a little tough. We'll have to cut a lot of stuff back in April."

Dosanjh's message to fellow dealers: Get on local officials' radar — now. That will help provide clarity on exactly what's allowed in the event of a coronavirus-related shutdown order.

"If there's no clarity, then there's a big problem. If that language is not there, a local authority will come and close you down," he said. "The whole country needs to be ready for this. It's coming."