COVID-19 pandemic. With a $12,000 budget, it was a struggle. They recently went to see a used car in Ontario, but they bounced right after they saw it.“We were promised a car that hadn’t been through any accidents, was in good condition,” Weber said.“We showed up before the private seller got there and realized that the car had clearly flipped, and the front of the car had not been put back on properly.”Like other millennials, the 33-year-old from Toronto said she has been wanting throughout the pandemic to move out of the big city and into a rural setting, hoping to be closer to nature.
She sees a car as the first step in making this become a reality, but for Weber and many other North Americans, finding an affordable and quality set of used wheels right now is difficult — and industry experts say the market will be inflated for months, at least.The pandemic boosted demand for cars, and at the same time, it helped spur a vehicle shortage by setting off a domino effect of supply-chain issues.
The combination of these situations pushed the industry to boom like never before, leaving many car sellers just as desperate as buyers.
Both have been forced to adapt to an evolving industry going through more changes than ever.This means many long-standing rules about the used-car market no longer apply.