Covid may have struck four years ago but car dealers and buyers are being warned of a worrying side effect: cars registered at the time whose equipment level didn’t match their official specification and are now entering the used car market, often undetected and incorrectly priced. Called ‘Covid cars’, these vehicles are victims of the global parts shortage caused by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
“We’ve had conversations with franchise dealers who have looked at their databases and insisted that models with certain specifications just can’t exist, when we’ve had the car in front of us.” A lack of manufacturer data on the cars is making it hard for the motor trade to value the vehicles accurately, according to Blakemore. He said: “If even car makers don’t know what they were sending out, it makes the trade’s job very difficult.