Covid Questions: Can I buy cars on the private market during the lockdown?

You can. But only in very specific cases. And whether or not you should, is another question.

Here’s why.

First of all, life simply continues as usual during lockdown in many respects. Most restrictions relate to the way we move around and how much freedom we have outside of truly essential activities.

Buying a car is thoroughly possible even with the threat of Covid. There’s no law forbidding it. You can buy a car online with a dealership, either through click & collect or home delivery. Both are perfectly fine and respectable methods and will offer you plenty of consumer protection.

Things are a bit different with a private sale.

After all, you are only supposed to leave the house for essential activities. For most people, this will mean “for work and buying groceries only”.

Is buying a car “essential”? It depends. If you need the car for work and if you don’t have access to a vehicle otherwise, buying a car from a private seller is most likely within your legal rights. If you don’t really require it for work purposes, however, things become tricky.

They become even more tricky if you spot a great deal and want to take a look at it before committing to a sale. The police may already regarded this as breaking the limitations of the lockdown.

Warning: Test drives now allowed.

Add to that the fact that you are not allowed to test drive the car and the arguments against buying privately pile up. A test drive, after all, is an essential part of the buying process. With a respected dealership, you can still consider buying the car nonetheless. With a private sale, it should really be out of the question.

Even if the price is amazing, we therefore strongly recommend against a private sale during the pandemic.