DID YOU KNOW:
...That as Americans move from the pandemic to nearly normal life, we find ourselves facing a lot of changes to how define “normal?” As it applies to automobiles, the world has turned upside-down. Manufactures have had to deal with shuttled plants to protect workers from COVID-19 which in turn has had a huge impact on dealer lot inventories. Just as workers returned to plants and started manufacturing 2021 vehicles, a microchip shortage had an even larger impact on vehicle assembly as 24 plants were shuttled worldwide (still unresolved). Then, Texas gets hit with a severe winter storm and lost most of its power grid AND this has a big impact on the seat foam manufacturers, resulting shortages of seats for building new vehicles. Now comes word that there’s about to be a tire rubber shortage that will have a massive effect on new tire supplies.
The only thing the industry isn’t short on...is buyers. There’s a rapidly growing list of buyers waiting for their new vehicle to be built. Amazingly enough, this has had a domino effect on used car supplies and that’s driving used car inventories down and prices up — in a big way. In just the auto industry alone, the pandemic is going to have a lasting impact for some time to come. In short, if a dealer (either new or used) has a the vehicle you’re looking for in stock...BUY IT QUICKLY before it’s gone.
...That Mercedes was driving its new “Hypercar” prototype to the famous “Ring” race track in Germany for some development testing and it broke down on the way? As a former Mercedes owner (sadly several, in fact), I’m no longer a fan of the products for the same reason I suspect their engineers are rapidly losing faith in their new high-dollar toy: engines. I’m old enough to remember when Mercedes built some of the best cars in the world, but that ship has long sailed.
Comments