One of the biggest dealership buy-sell deals in years was aborted days before it was scheduled to close. Asbury also tapped a credit line in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Dealerships across the country may be faced with the reality they'll need to temporarily close showrooms under various state governors' orders to stay at home and shutter nonessential businesses to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Governors across the country continue to issue stay-at-home orders requiring nonessential businesses to close. In many cases, dealerships have been deemed essential businesses for service and parts. But auto sales have been treated differently in the orders, leading to uncertainty and confusion for dealerships.

The auto retail industry is fighting a tug of war between protecting customers and employees and doing its part to keep the economy afloat.

New York and Pennsylvania ordered the closing of all non-life-sustaining businesses, prompting the shutdown of dealership sales operations, but service departments and digital sales operations remain open. Across the country, dealerships are trying to determine what the government orders mean.

March started out OK, the market research company said, but as the coronavirus spread, shoppers hit the brakes. By Sunday, U.S. light-vehicle demand had fallen 36 percent more than the forecaster initially projected.

The lobbying groups are seeking national guidance to ensure that sales and repair facilities avoid closure because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The shutdowns at the used-vehicle giant are in effect until April 7. Some new-vehicle dealerships across the country are also closing down some operations to comply with government orders.

In California, six counties around San Francisco are issuing a shelter-in-place order until April 7, according to a memo from the California New Car Dealers Association. The order will require nonessential businesses in those counties to close. The association said auto repair is listed as an essential business, so dealership service and parts operations should remain open.

Dealers, facing a massive headwind in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, are finding ways to serve their customers.

DARCARS Automotive Group was the winning bidder for a dealership auctioned off in January as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Toyota of Kirkland is in Kirkland, Wash., where 19 deaths from COVID-19 have been tied to a nursing home in the Seattle suburb.