When Do Vehicle Inventories Get Back To....

[Murphy Slaw]

Originally Posted by Jobe

As a side note my sister just told me if you want a new dishwasher from Lowes it may be a year out.

I was at a Home Depot yesterday, and they have plenty in stock.

[tbeltrans]

Reading this rather depressing thread, three things come to mind:

1. No matter how bad it gets, it can always get worse.
2. This too shall pass.
3. No one gets out alive.



I have never owned a new car, preferring to always buy what I could actually afford (i.e. no car loans). My car is 22 years old (bought used at 4 years old) and still going strong and I hope that continues until things get back to normal. Normal, as it is used here, refers to a ready supply of new cars easing up the used car market.

Tony

[Mr. Jelly]

Last year my son bought a new vehicle. Which is something as his SO claimed he was bourgeoisie for doing it. So that gives you an idea of their mindset. He ordered it online and it was delivered to him. He was happy about the whole thing.

[Tnfiddler]

Well, we don’t have a foreign country attacking us and killing anyone and everyone they can, so vehicle buying is pretty trivial right now. Every time I see one of my 3 Ukrainian/American children, that we adopted, I’m reminded of how blessed we are, as a nation.

[Murphy Slaw]

Originally Posted by Tnfiddler

Well, we don’t have a foreign country attacking us and killing anyone and everyone they can, so vehicle buying is pretty trivial right now.

Spending 30 to 50 thousand dollars on a vehicle I might keep for 10 years might be trivial to you. But it's not to me.

Using your train of thought, this entire discussion forum about picks, strings, and guitars must seem quite trivial. Did you put that post in the other threads?

I hate war as much as the next guy, but there's always one somewhere and the best defense is a good offense.

[GCWaters]

Originally Posted by Murphy Slaw

Spending 30 to 50 thousand dollars on a vehicle I might keep for 10 years might be trivial to you. But it's not to me.



Using your train of thought, this entire discussion forum about picks, strings, and guitars must seem quite trivial. Did you put that post in the other threads?



I hate war as much as the next guy, but there's always one somewhere and the best defense is a good offense.

Yes, completely trivial compared to what others are going through…

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by Murphy Slaw

Spending 30 to 50 thousand dollars on a vehicle I might keep for 10 years might be trivial to you. But it's not to me.

Using your train of thought, this entire discussion forum about picks, strings, and guitars must seem quite trivial. Did you put that post in the other threads?

I hate war as much as the next guy, but there's always one somewhere and the best defense is a good offense.

It's easy to have misunderstandings in a forum. I think I understand @Tnfiddler and you but we might have bias via our connections to the area and kids that are not our own in a genetic sense.

It would be no surprise for some here to have horrible disagreements about picks, strings and guitars, but a very different matter for Taylor and Stratocaster loving finger style player to have a Martin guitar flat picking extremist invade their home over it.

As frustrating as the inventory and pricing matters are, I'll take it over the downturn times I've seen repeat in my life. With luck the cooling down already past and going on won't see big extremes and much suffering to get some more sanity.

Maybe the repairs and less vehicle buying going on is in a way good for many of us? It's more localized labor and sales. The $40-$50,000+ we decided to not spend on a vehicle is being spent on car repairs, home repairs and some regional travel. That might be a lot healthier for my region than a new vehicle.

[Mr. Jelly]

Originally Posted by Tnfiddler

I’m reminded of how blessed we are.

And most of use here are blessed everyday.

[jklotz]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

And most of use here are blessed everyday.

I agree with that.

[jklotz]

I bought a new car last month. I had to drive to Houston, TX to get it, as it was the only one I could find in stock east of California. The thing that made it possible for me was they offered $3K less than I paid for my old car, which I had for 3 years. $1K a year to own a higher end Kia, depreciation and all? I'll take that deal. I did pay MSRP, but that was pretty good considering most dealers wanted thousands above MSRP. I seriously doubt you can find better than that now.

Chip shortage aside, most car manufacturers are trying to move, at least partially, to an order online model instead of filling dealership lots up with inventory that can sit, sometimes for months. It's my understanding this is a shift in the business model and is not related to the current shortage, although the shortage paved the path for it. This is an article I ran across when I was researching my car:

"May 10, 2022 at 4:08am ET

By: Angel Sergeev

The used car market has been dominated by online sales for years and it makes sense for this trend to also invade the new car scene. It’s obviously a very different environment with its own specifics, but many automakers are already investing in digitalizing their sales. As part of its business transformation, BMW is also looking at achieving a larger portion of online sales from its total new car sales.

More precisely, the Bavarian automaker wants to sell 25 percent of all its new cars online by the middle of this decade. A new article by Forbes shines more light on BMW’s plans, which include using help from Adobe for data management. The tech company will also support the automaker’s efforts in the personalized digital customer experiences, including online sales of new vehicles.

“A third of all buyers can very clearly imagine to buy a car online,” Jens Thiemer, BMW Vice President, explained during on TechFirst podcast. “And we have to prepare ourselves together with our retail partners to make that possible.” This unified online experience could even expand to include virtual test drives, but switching entirely to online sales won’t happen anytime soon.

Thiemer believes BMW’s retail partners are “the main interface to our brand” and they are resources the company is not ready to lose. He also pointed out that “brands in the automotive sector which are totally based on a digital purchase journey” are now looking to expand their businesses with physical locations. Just because, “for a perfect customer journey,” they need those selling points.

Moving at least a quarter of its sales to online platforms would require a change in the way cars are sold at BMW. For example, new car prices need to be fixed as it is very difficult to recreate negotiations in the digital world. Also, BMW needs help from Adobe to create more advanced applications where the customers can configure their own cars as opposed to selecting from pre-built cars."

[6L6]

Our local Silicon Valley BMW dealership lot is almost empty.

I talked with the guy who sold me my car last year and he said they cannot get new cars and it may be a long time before that changes.

Not a good time to be a BMW salesperson here.

[jklotz]

Originally Posted by 6L6

Our local Silicon Valley BMW dealership lot is almost empty.

I talked with the guy who sold me my car last year and he said they cannot get new cars and it may be a long time before that changes.

Not a good time to be a BMW salesperson here.

Yup, and I'm on the BMW forums recently reading about folks who did order have been waiting for months with one delay after another. On top of that, cars are showing up with tech items deleted - no apple car play/android auto, no touch screen, power seats, etc with price deductions reflected. The deletions are changing weekly, depending on what part shortage they have on the build date, so there's no way to know what will actually be on the car until it ships.

That's why I drove all the way to Houston to get mine.

[Murphy Slaw]

Wouldn't that business model be very bad for your local dealer?

Who employ local people?

I'm guessing the manufacturer would like to keep the commission, but service has to be worth something. I always knew my local dealer had my back, more so than a big 3 corporation, at least over small things.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by Murphy Slaw

Wouldn't that business model be very bad for your local dealer?

Who employ local people?

I'm guessing the manufacturer would like to keep the commission, but service has to be worth something. I always knew my local dealer had my back, more so than a big 3 corporation, at least over small things.

Likely an adjustment if not bad. It will also depend on the dealer.

There are Tesla showrooms that are service locations in states where selling the cars is illegal. They achieve the the all important jobs of pre-sales familiarity and post-sale service. It's a really great experience other automakers would like.

IMO, sales will remain vital for businesses but salespeople or sales as a profession is very changed and will only get more changed for a lot of products.

I'd love to buy non-Teslas in the Tesla way.

[rllink]

I've bought my last three cars from the same Ford dealership here in town. All three new. I also take them in to the dealership for servicing. I feel like there is a relationship there. They are very attentive to my needs. I like that, but maybe that is just old school. Anyway, I'll adjust. I used to be like that with banks. I liked to go in and do my banking with a person. But over the last couple decades I've gotten used to ATMs and online banking to the point I haven't been in the bank itself for years and I don't want to go in. So it goes I guess.

It used to be that car sales people were on commission but I know that none of the major new car dealerships in town have sales people on commission. And they haven't for a long time. They are all on salary now.