It’s no secret that the coronavirus pandemic impacted travel significantly and continues to do so today. Even though more people are starting to travel again with borders opening between countries and airport traffic increasing, travel isn’t the same as it was before the pandemic — not in the air nor on the road.
In this blog post, we’re going to highlight how the pandemic has changed auto travel and how that impacts you as you look to get back on the road. If you’ve been wondering how to navigate car shortages or car maintenance post-pandemic, this post will serve as a helpful guide.
The new, used, and rental car shortage
Consumers looking to purchase or rent a vehicle right now will quickly see that demand is high and inventory is low, leading to higher prices and sometimes no availability at all. This is just one example of how the pandemic has changed auto travel and how we’re all feeling those impacts now.
New and used cars
New car production has slowed due to manufacturing shortages after the pandemic caused manufacturing pauses on many different industries. This has caused a domino effect, where car shoppers are seeing less overall inventory of vehicles available to purchase.
Rental cars
When the impacts of the pandemic on travel started being felt across various industries in 2020, the rental car industry was among the industries severely impacted. To help with financial losses from people not using rental cars to travel, rental car companies began selling off their fleets of vehicles. This was a good solution in 2020 when traveling was so limited, but now that things are picking up again, we’re looking at the same issue that we’re seeing with new and used cars — high demand and low inventory
