The outbreak has significantly changed how we think about—and shop for—the cars in our lives. While some changes are temporary, others are most likely permanent. Experts from research firms, car dealerships, and Bloomberg Automotive Intelligence team answering the most pressing questions about the future of acquiring vehicles. — Will social distancing kill the car dealership? The shorter answer is no, it won’t. But it has sped up changes that were already in motion before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. “We know that consumers will continue to be concerned about social distancing," says Stephanie Brinley, principal automotive analyst at research firm IHS Markit. “But what we really see is that there were trends toward making car buying an easier process already happening before we started going into [the pandemic]." The old-fashioned handshake deal will be dead. But the prevalence of smaller showrooms, tactical, more localized marketing, pre-approved financing, and online sales and insurance transactions is likely to grow. — How good are dealerships at doing socially distanced transactions? Plastic wraps on steering wheels and seats, driveway drop-offs for test drives, and personalized new-car deliveries are all on the table for dealerships motivated to support safety-sensitive customers. The points of contact between consumers and salespeople should be minimized, with one person, rather than two or three or five, devoted to each customer. There will be much more one-one-one attention for customers who engage with sales people, especially at higher-end brands. — Is this the death of the test-drive? Not yet. Historically, at most dealerships, the rule was that you had to take the car out with a sales representative. All the technology in modern cars made this essential; it’s better to learn how to use the Bluetooth from a person than an app. Special friends of the dealership and VIP clients could take the car for a spin alone, after handing over driver’s license and insurance information. — Will consumers stop buying cars as often as they used to? It’s likely. There may be some permanent tapering, even after the primary concerns of food, shelter, and health—which are foremost in mind during a pandemic—are allayed. The average age of the car on the road today in America is 11 years; expect that number to rise. — How will the auto industry recover from this? Elsewhere, automakers must simply move forward with projects already underway. When people are working from home, there’s only so much you can do to help something move forward—but they’re still moving forward. The anticipation is that it’s fundamentally temporary. It’s maybe just going to be longer than we expected.