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Used car sales fluctuating during pandemic

Used car purchases during the pandemic
Posted at 6:26 AM, Jan 07, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-07 07:28:04-05

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Purchasing a vehicle can be stressful. A family-owned dealership in the Coastal Bend tries to help those who are looking to buy a used car during the pandemic.

The owner of Aaron's Auto Sales in Corpus Christi says sales of used cars has been unpredictable since the start of the pandemic.

“It’s been an up and down thing," said Hector Limon, owner of Aaron's Auto Sales. "We’ve had some decent months through it and little bit tougher months on some occasions. But overall, we’ve been selling some cars."

According to Cox Automotive Estimates, used retail supply peaked at 115 days on April 8, 2020.

This past September, Manheim the nation's leading provider of end to end wholesale vehicle solutions, noted that its used vehicle value index saw a 15.2% increase over a year ago.

Limon said with the recent help of stimulus checks, his dealership has had steady business even back to early last year when the first round of checks went out.

“We did have an increase and we had a pretty decent month for the month, month and a half,” he said.

Limon said one reason sales have fluctuated is because people were losing their jobs, or just starting new ones. He said lenders were less likely to finance cars, so he started offering in-house financing.

“I try to listen to where they work and for how long they have been at their job, and if they got affected by the pandemic," he said. "I put that into consideration."

If you are looking to buy a used car you can visit Aaron's Auto Sale here.