dealers running out of vehicles

[nukegm]

comrades ! here in front range colorado i drive by dealers and there are almost no cars/trucks. at first i thought the dealer i drove by was moving....but it isnt. they have some cars turned sideways to make it look like there is inventory. too bad we cant make the chips here in the USA. how is it by you? cheers!

https://kdvr.com/news/local/amid-mi...lers-warn-they-could-have-empty-lots-by-july/

 

[DonFitzwater]

Toyota, Ram, Ford are all nearly empty. There are a few GM trucks on the lot but nothing like normal lot numbers. Used prices are up 25-50 percent and even more in the turbo diesel market in my area.

 

[gsbrockman]

Very thin near my home as well.

Additionally....along my travels, I see the same results; low inventory, and what inventory the dealers do have is strategically parked to appear to make the lot more full, you know, like how tater chip manufacturers fill the tater chip bags with air.

Have any of you guys seen the Kentucky Raceway in Sparta loaded up with FoMoCo trucks from Louisville? Since it’s somewhat close to me, I’ve heard of it.

https://www.whas11.com/article/mone...tage/417-dc95ec09-2dd0-4ddb-a965-f9cd7058c13b

 

[Tuesdak]

too bad we cant make the chips here in the USA

The OEM's choose poorly in their race for the low bidder. I drove by the New Mexico Intel chip fab plant for my senior year in high school: it's still in production. Motorola used to have a chip plant in Phoenix. We can make the chips here, but, low bidder no matter what... Someone else has already paid for the existing plant capacity here for something else.

GM can't wait to import Chinese built cars. A good amount of AC Delco parts are now made in China. From batteries to water pumps.

So on one hand it's good to see their dependence on Communist Slave Labor biting them in the A$$ where it counts the most: the bottom line!

Sadly the Green Energy push depends on rare earth magnets for motors and guess where that's mined at.

 

[gsbrockman]

Kinda reminds me of a paint pigment that was ONLY produced in Japan at one plant at one time....

The plant was damaged by a tsunami in 2011. The outage left many car manufacturers scrambling for new paint colors, or reverting back to basic ones without the shiny stuff.

 

[DavidC]

GI boots made in China, F-16 chips made in China. So who is the super power. Pretty sure those 2 items were fixed.

 

[lpennock]

My local dealer had a bunch of gladiator pickups and ram trucks. I didn't pay attention if 1500 or bigger. No cars at all though.

 

[jgillott]

I'm sure that I can't be the only one, but I have already fielded a contact email from the salesman that sold me my F150 a couple of years ago. Of course, it is the standard line "Hey, we have a buyer that will pay top dollar for your truck". Most often, those are just marketing lines to get you back on their lot. This time, I tend to believe that they actually do want the inventory.

 

[CToney]

Up here north of the 49th they want any vehicle that is under 5-6 years old.
Plenty of brokers in the US willing to pay top dollar.

Lots aren’t terribly empty but they are not as full as they usually are.

 

[Timd32]

Unless you need a vehicle, I would just wait this out or if you can make due with a lesser trim and can order around the shortages and wait, not a bad time to be on the sidelines.

If your a seller, I think that's its a good time to look at that as it's pretty good right now.

When and if the Feds decide to toss a few tens of billions at the industry to get things moving, that used market could dry up, little ways away from that.

 

[Minnow101]

The “just in time” manufacturing mantra that is all the rage that enriched CEO’s portfolios by saving millions in warehousing & inventory costs has really come back to bite the big boys big time. Not only chips but just about everything. Just think of the lost profits from not having six months of computer chips on a shelf. Maybe Ford wouldn’t of needed to have thousands of half built trucks parked at a race track rotting away waiting on a $50 part. Oh but the savings in not having excess inventory was so worth it…..

 

[DonFitzwater]

The “just in time” manufacturing mantra that is all the rage that enriched CEO’s portfolios by saving millions in warehousing & inventory costs has really come back to bite the big boys big time. Not only chips but just about everything. Just think of the lost profits from not having six months of computer chips on a shelf. Maybe Ford wouldn’t of needed to have thousands of half built trucks parked at a race track rotting away waiting on a $50 part. Oh but the savings in not having excess inventory was so worth it…..

I fought "just in time inventory" when I worked in the oil field. The bosses in Houston told me there was no reason to have a few extra o-rings on the shelf at the shop on the North Slope in Alaska as they were "just a few days away". That worked great until we started paying days and days of rig time over .70 cents worth of o-rings.

 

[endoscott]

Bean counters....they are ruining every kind of business in America. But as long as these fancy CEO types are getting their million $ bonuses it's all good I guess.

 

[Bug Out]

The wife and I went to auto row in Avondale, Az yesterday Camping world and along the way saw one empty dealer lot after another. Chevy was empty, no trucks but 1500's. RAM had C&C's, but little inventory to see.

 

[DonFitzwater]

I had a customer tell me recently that there were tons of vehicles, mainly trucks, for sale on dealer lots in Washington.................He claims he was down there recently and said that this availability problem was strictly an Alaska problem. Silly boy.

 

[jgillott]

I thought it would be fun to plug the info for my 2018 Ford in to KBB to see what the supposed trade in values would be. If I remember correctly, the selling price was ~$43,500 before tax/registration in May of 2018.

The truck is has 26.5K miles on it as of today. The truck is flawless. But, I used the very good condition rating since it will need tires. These numbers are absolutely insane.

 

[nukegm]

just a coincidence, im sure - polysilicon plant explodes in china. yay !

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/reports-indicate-massive-fire-breaks-out-chinese-polysilicon-plant

more stress on chip shortage...cheers!