Norm Burton Snr of Maitland Toyota summed up their situation.

“It was all hands to the pumps on Wednesday; we had more than 200 new and used display vehicles coated in dust.”

Mr Burton said every car owner faced the same problem.

“And while we have far more cars than the average person, we also have more people to clean them,” he told the Mercury on Thursday.

“Nature plays many tricks on us and this was just one of those,” Mr Burton said.

“Luckily, many of the cars in our holding yard were not ready for sale, so we had time to clean and polish them. “It was just that they were a bit dirtier than they normally would be.

“We traditionally wash our display vehicles on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and usually that is not a huge task for us.

“But all over Maitland on Wednesday, I don’t think anyone was spared. If we had been guaranteed some good soaking rain after the storm, we could all have parked our cars outside and let the rain do the job for us.

“But of course, that didn’t happen.”