Car Shortage
 

It's been three weeks now since I put money down on a 2022 Civic Hatchback.
The salesman showed me a stack of prob 30-40 orders ahead of me at that time.

I decided to call today to find out how long it was taking between the deposit and delivery of the ones ahead of me.

The salesman was very honest...he said "none of the ones ahead of you have come in yet"

This car shortage is not good.

A very good report on the 'supply chain fiasco' on the cbs news tonight.

its really taken the sport out of my former hobby of casually shopping for used cars that I gennerally don't buy. They are just too expensive to even fantasize about buying Sucks if you actually need a vehicle.

I see 3 yo used vehicles with 40k miles on them with asks over MSRP.

^^^ When I was haggling with the Honda salesman, he pointed out that they had a couple 2021 Civics on the lot.

The price for either of them was very close to the one I ordered....but not nearly as nice.

3 weeks! I would be worried after 3 months.


Took just under 3 months to build my truck. I wouldn't worry.

^^^ Yeah..I knew it wouldn't be close..but I called just to find the time gap from other buyers.
It surprised me that none of the other orders have been filled yet.

It would actually work better for me if it didn't come in until spring. The snow/salt season would be avoided.

Good for the used car market, the parts companies, and repair facilities. Also mass transit. And delivery/CC banking cough.

Just like that we went from a disposable plastic society, to being careful again and 1 car families..
A rehash of the 90s.
Maybe they'll drop the speed limit to 55 again.

Demand for reliability over bling features will be the next phase of consumer demand, hopefully.

It is probably also good for manufacturers. 'Sorry, we can only sell our most profitable products right now'.

It's about to get worse....
 

Thanks to the Chinese energy crisis there's now a Magnesium shortage threatening materials production. It's hitting Europe especially hard.

rjp

The HD pickup market was absolutely crazy this past spring and summer. Found a very nice used truck so I haven't been looking lately.

My Honda Dealer has had zero cars in their showroom since at least July.
The outside lot has practically nothing.

When I asked about the empty showroom...he said "It's no use putting them inside...they're always sold by the time they get here"

Same with our local Audi dealer. It looks more like a used car lot as their new car inventory is down to next to nothing. I asked the sales guys and they said they only have 1/10th of their normal inventory.

I'm trying to buy a used CR-V for a relative. The sales guy told me I have about four hours from when the trade-ins arrive until they are sold. Or they are pre-sold subject to inspection.

And a used car that was $18k pre-COVID is now $24k.

^^^ Sounds about right.
I also heard that some of the cars in the dealers lot are ready to go...when the chips they need arrive.

2018-2020
https://www.saabplanet.com/tens-of-thousands-of-unsold-cars-are-being-parked-in-lots-and-left-as-trash-this-is-absolutely-ridiculous/
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/08/28/thousands-of-cars-sitting-on-lots-unsold/
https://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message672905/pg1

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8305371/Thousands-unsold-cars-pictured-lined-port.html
Published: 13:59 EDT, 10 May 2020
Thousands of unsold cars were pictured lining up at port after demand plunged to its lowest level since 1946 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1635958955.jpg

Sounds like a domestic market waiting to happen.
There are some global chess pieces being moved around here.

We had to reorder our Big Bronco this weekend because of the shortage, Been on order for a year and a half
We were promised a bunch of extra's and the cost would be the same as when we first put in the order, but that all has changed, we get to keep our original place in line but all the promises will not apply to the 2023 model

^^^ Wow...that makes my 3 week wait on the Civic...trivial.
Are they blaming it on the chip shortage?

Just sold the GF's kinda beat up 2016 Corolla S, 86K miles outright to dealer- Last year it was $9.5K w/ lower miles

---last week, now $13.3K.

rjp

Back when I worked for Toyota, Longo Toyota down near LA was legendary, routinely selling 3-400 cars during the Toyotathon weekend, and usually had close to 1000 cars in inventory.

I just looked last week and they had 52 cars in inventory...this week is a little better at 68. Either of those numbers blow my mind.