New Vehicle Shortage to last in to 2024
- Thread starter CKN
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People (In general) used to drive their cars into the ground before trading them in, Their still driving them into the ground but some no longer have the ability/luxury to jump into something low mileage at a moments notice.
Then they show up at a repair garage wanting instant gratification....My shop is is fully booked 4 weeks out with no relief in sight!
I'm approaching 30 years in the auto repair industry....I've never seen anything quite like this. There used to be 15 bay/mechanic garages everywhere in the 80's, Larger independents with 4-5 bays/mechanics are the norm now.
To ask a industry that has been steadily shrinking in talent & square footage for the last 25 years to suddenly grow 150%+ overnight is impossible. I'm going to hold fast for now.....I priced having a second shop built & it'll cost 3 times what I spent building my existing shop in 2019.
Not to mention hiring talent, You have to lure/poach from other shops which means higher salaries/commissions than they're actually worth.
Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but wondering about if these car manufacturers have crunched the numbers and if they realize they’re about as profitable selling less cars at a much higher price vs. cranking out cars and selling at a lower price.
Fingers crossed this Grand Cherokee makes it that long lol.
Fingers crossed this Grand Cherokee makes it that long lol.
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Toyota actually rolled back that prediction-
Toyota Slashes Global Production in April By 150,000 Vehicles: We’re Not Out of the Woods Yet
It's still a challenging time for the car industry — Toyota announced Thursday it would cut its global production by 17% in April.tflcar.com
We are now in July and the article quoted mentions the three months prior.
True to an extent, but due to me having a severely compromised respiratory system I can honestly say some vehicles SHOULDN'T be on public roads. I've been stuck behind quite a few and couldn't get the windows up fast enough to avoid the mess created in the air.
True-are they going to be able to manufacture 150,000 vehicles in the next two quarters-with wide spread shortages not just chips?
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@CKN when I was there, they would make a tick north of 500 cars per shift, two shifts. May have been different East Plant and West Plant; that one will soon make a Lexus side-by-side with its Toyota version.. the Lexus is the better of the two. So that's at least 100p vehicles per day, possibly 2000. From one plant. Haven't even talked about Kentucky or Texas or the other ones..
They DID elect to go to a 4 day work week and WERE talking about 3rd shift (so it runs 24/7) and shifts usually ran 2 hours OT every day, shifts named after Lexus colors.. so, it is entirely possible they are ramping up to make more production. It was a point of pride for them how they only had to stop making cars for either "a few weeks" or "a few months" in 2008/2009.
I only hope all this is helpful, I parted ways with them, so I'm only relaying some non-specific general information. They have knee-jerk reactions that I don't like. Such seems to be the nature of the business. Then there is the market they make cars for, West Plant used to make RHD cars for Russia, that was the market for the RHD vehicles... so, I'm thinking they used their couple of months "downtime" - during which I said "See ya," - to find new suppliers for their routes etc.
Still pallets full of empties and cardboard boxes because yeah, shortages, but, as mentioned, maybe Sumitomo, Denso Michigan, and a lot of other places that deal with many places not just Toyota.. who operates like Walmart and Amazon combined.. stepped it up or changed.
They DID elect to go to a 4 day work week and WERE talking about 3rd shift (so it runs 24/7) and shifts usually ran 2 hours OT every day, shifts named after Lexus colors.. so, it is entirely possible they are ramping up to make more production. It was a point of pride for them how they only had to stop making cars for either "a few weeks" or "a few months" in 2008/2009.
I only hope all this is helpful, I parted ways with them, so I'm only relaying some non-specific general information. They have knee-jerk reactions that I don't like. Such seems to be the nature of the business. Then there is the market they make cars for, West Plant used to make RHD cars for Russia, that was the market for the RHD vehicles... so, I'm thinking they used their couple of months "downtime" - during which I said "See ya," - to find new suppliers for their routes etc.
Still pallets full of empties and cardboard boxes because yeah, shortages, but, as mentioned, maybe Sumitomo, Denso Michigan, and a lot of other places that deal with many places not just Toyota.. who operates like Walmart and Amazon combined.. stepped it up or changed.
I’m not into conspiracy theories but don’t you find it odd how they are pushing all of these new EVs that have tons if computer systems that REQUIRE CHIPS during a CHIP SHORTAGE.
Or if you look at GM pumping out Trax and Trailblazers while the apparent chip shortage can’t get enough Corvettes and Silverados on the lot. I mean…who wants a trax? You think they would cut production of their crap models and shift chip allocations to the hot sellers.
OEMs are riding this “chip shortage” wave so they can save money and profit big. With this “shortage” they haven’t had to build cars that sit. And they haven’t had to give out any discounts to move them. It benefits everybody except the consumer. Dealers are charging mark up for cars that don’t even exist.
All it takes is the dealer to sell cars 1 month in advance and the lots will always be empty. Think the car comes off the truck and most will be delivered to customers by end of week. Whatever you see come in is most likely already sold.
I don’t mind waiting but the mark ups on new allocations doesn’t sit well with me. It’s one thing if you can BTO the vehicle but Toyota/Honda you get what they build. Most of the time you don’t get the exact car you want. And to pay mark up with that? Pass.
Or if you look at GM pumping out Trax and Trailblazers while the apparent chip shortage can’t get enough Corvettes and Silverados on the lot. I mean…who wants a trax? You think they would cut production of their crap models and shift chip allocations to the hot sellers.
OEMs are riding this “chip shortage” wave so they can save money and profit big. With this “shortage” they haven’t had to build cars that sit. And they haven’t had to give out any discounts to move them. It benefits everybody except the consumer. Dealers are charging mark up for cars that don’t even exist.
All it takes is the dealer to sell cars 1 month in advance and the lots will always be empty. Think the car comes off the truck and most will be delivered to customers by end of week. Whatever you see come in is most likely already sold.
I don’t mind waiting but the mark ups on new allocations doesn’t sit well with me. It’s one thing if you can BTO the vehicle but Toyota/Honda you get what they build. Most of the time you don’t get the exact car you want. And to pay mark up with that? Pass.
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Not sure how you figure this... ECU's, ABS sensors, darn near every system in the car has silicon attached to it. EV might be worse... but not an order of magnitude worse I'd wager.
I'd sooner complain about the nannies and the silicon that they require, all that "thinking" has to be done by something, and I'm sure it takes a lot of die area to "think".
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