A message from me

These are unprecedented and unpredictable times. Here at BSCB I will continue to provide you with the most up-to-date automotive sales data information, including forecasts of COVID-19 market impacts when I deem the estimates to be reliable. As a 100% online company, our day-to-day operations thankfully remain unaffected by government closures and potential future confinement measures here in Australia.

As you may know, this is a one-man-show as far as articles published on the site are concerned, and as such for the past two weeks I have taken extra precautions in order to avoid any COVID-19 exposure, in essence proactively putting myself in self-isolation and limiting in-person social situations as much as possible. We do have behind-the-scenes teams in Australia, the USA and India and everyone has also been extra-careful, as well putting in place reliable procedures to ensure continuity in the case of confinement/shelter-at-home orders. My family is in France and safe also.

BSCB has had readers from every single country in the world for many years, and you are all in one way or another affected by this. I want to thank you for your continued readership and membership, and I have one message for you all: Please stay at home as much as possible, even if your government hasn’t yet ordered you to. This last part is very important, as it is will help your country overcome this pandemic quicker and with significantly less casualties while your government figures out the best way to deal with it collectively.

Here are a few additional automotive-related tips in order keep you and the ones around you safe:

Limit movement outside your home as much as possible, and keep a 2m distance with anyone while walking in the street (= holding a broom horizontally). Work from home if you can.

Avoid public transport as much as possible.

If you must take your car, the safest situation is if you are the only person using your car at any time. The virus can stay on plastic for up to 3 days, so thoroughly and regularly clean all high-touch surfaces (below) with disinfectant and wear disposable gloves when refuelling.

If you must take a taxi, prefer options that don’t require any physical payment such as Uber, Lyft or Didi. Always sit in the back seat (shout out to all of you Aussies), as far as possible from the driver for their and your safety, and don’t share your ride with anybody else (Uber Pool has already been deactivated in Australia and some parts of the US).

Don’t be afraid of awkward social situations such as being perceived as overprotecting yourself (eg wearing gloves in a taxi). Do what you think is right for everyone’s safety, and if needed you can defuse the tension by reassuring the other person it has nothing to do with them personally, you are just protecting both them and yourself.

Although reputable companies thoroughly clean their cars, avoid rental cars or car-sharing services as much as possible (some countries such as Spain have discontinued that service already). Thoroughly disinfect high touch surfaces yourself even if the company says it has done so already.

I’ve talked about anti-bacterial air filtering options (above) in my last China article. Although these may work by filtering the air coming into your vehicle, they definitely won’t protect you if someone sick is inside your car and sneezes for example.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me personally by clicking on the envelope at the top of the website, next to the social media icons.

We’ll get through this together!

Stay safe,

Matt Gasnier / Founder / Best Selling Cars Blog