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Is the Current State of Affairs Good for the Auto Industry?
After a failure of the transmission control module in my wife's 2014 Ford Focus and an "indefinite lead time" of the replacement part, my wife and I went car shopping this past weekend.
After visiting a number of dealerships and different manufacturers, we found that inventories are still a game of chance. Placing an order for a new vehicle only reserves your spot for a manufacture date weeks to months out.
Much of the current operations are due to the ongoing chip shortage, but there are some other interesting notes:
- Car manufacturers ($F, $GM, $HMC, $TM, etc) are still manufacturing as close to capacity as possible
- Suppliers are still operating at full capacity (plastics, coatings, materials, etc)
- Every car rolling off the line is most likely already claimed
- Dealers/manufacturers don't need to offer incentives or mark up prices to cover overhead and inventory costs
- MSRP is the new standard purchase price
We got lucky and there was a 2022 Honda Passport on the lot (had been there for 2 days) that we test drove, loved, and were able to buy.
So what do you think? Is this "made to order" manufacturing a good change in operations for the industry? Or once raw materials (chips) supplies catch up, things go back to normal?
Next question is how long until we can find the replacement part (chip dependent) for the old car and get it sold?
Is the current "made to order" operations of the auto industry a positive?
30%Good for the industry
40%Only temporary/Doesn't matter
30%Bad for the industry
10 VotesPoll ended on: 8/19/2022
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