The boom in buying a car without ever leaving your sofa

“This will become the norm – simply because it is so much easier, and quicker, than visiting a showroom or seller. You can buy a car from the comfort of your own home, at any time of the day, and tailor the delivery to suit you.”

Most Britons have a budget of £15,000 or less to purchase a car, according to YouGov, and up until now making this kind of large purchase has been slow to move online – perhaps unsurprising given the sums involved and complexity of the transaction.

But Covid has dramatically changed how we do our shopping, altering not only the type of products we are willing to buy online, but also how we make some of our most expensive purchases.

The pandemic coincided with the rise of a new breed of car dealers like Cazoo and Cinch, which let shoppers buy, part-exchange and finance used vehicles entirely online.

Until relatively recently, buying a car involved hours scouring adverts, travelling to showrooms, test-driving different makes and models, and enduring “the hard sell” pitches at the dealership.

Those days may be numbered. Many prospective buyers now conduct their research entirely online and decide what they want before even heading to a forecourt.