Automakers around the world are struggling with the chip shortage created by the pandemic, but as record sales early this year wiped out inventory, the downside of a run on the dealerships is starting to rear its ugly head.
Automotive News reports that the Ford Motor Company, in particular, has suffered as a result of the chip shortage. May was the worst month for the F-Series pickup line in more than nine years as sales plummeted 29% even as compared to the pandemic-affected 2020. The Mustang’s assembly line, meanwhile, has been down for all but two weeks since April. In all, AutoForecast Solutions estimates that Ford production has gone down by 400,000 vehicles as a result of the chip shortage.
That means that, although Ford sales are up 3.7% overall from 2020, some people who have ordered a Ford are left waiting. Fortunately, people who are waiting for a new model, like the Bronco or the Mach-e, might not have to wait as long as Ford chose to prioritize those cars’ chip needs. Still, though, Ford has reportedly told its dealers not to expect a big bump in inventory for a while.
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“It’s almost like the Indy 500,” Richard Bazzy, owner of Shults Ford-Lincoln group in Pittsburg, told AN. “ ’We’re only giving you enough fuel to win; you can’t cruise afterward.’ Now I’m pretty much out of gas.”
Indeed, he reports that Ford told him not to expect inventory to start streaming in again until at least the third quarter of the year. The hardest part, according to Bazzy, is managing customer expectations and responding to angry calls when customer orders can’t be filled.
The lack of cars is so severe, though, that many buyers are coming in and settling for their third or fourth choice and buying it quickly.
“They’re basically saying, ‘What can I get?’ and not thinking about it very long because if they wait a couple days, that car might not be here,” said one of Bazzy’s general managers, John Huselton. “It seems like they’re a little more nervous they’re not going to be able to get a car.”
Others are just waiting patiently, like Malcolm Stallons, who sold his 2018 Mustang in March in preparation for his new 2021 Mustang in Antimatter Blue. Left without a sports car, he says that every beautiful day, he becomes a little frustrated that no one told him how long it would take to get him his new car. Still, he’s not about to give up his order.
“Lexington, [Kentucky] has 320,000 people,” Stallons said, “but I am certain that if I don’t buy it, that the person who does will pass me every morning as I go to work.”