- There's a lot of people that are looking
at the car business right now
and saying that, well, the car business is --
is changed forever; and --
and nothing's really changed in our business,
other than, you see this lot is empty.
- The pavement tells the story. - What you're not seeing is --
is cars, and what you should be seeing is cars.
- It's a global supply chain crisis you can drive by.
- Right now we are in probably the biggest hole
when it comes to motor vehicle inventory we've ever been in.
- From Anchorage to Abilene to outside Washington --
at DARCARS Ford, dealers don't have much to sell --
at least what you can see and maybe drive home with.
- Normally, i-in this particularly dealership,
we'll have 400 or 500 cars
on the ground, uh, for our customers.
- On this day, 26 new cars --
just enough to represent the Ford lineup of SUVs,
trucks, and a Mustang.
This all goes back to the start of the pandemic,
when everything stopped.
Automakers halted production, but by doing that,
they gave up their spot in line at the plants making chips.
These slivers of silicon matter,
because cars are basically rolling computers these days --
from navigation screens to tiny cameras.
- I think there's been this kind of rude awakening
for a lot of the manufacturers
that they've become so dependent on these computer chips.
- With stimulus money to spend, sales came roaring back;
the chips did not.
So, vehicle sales have since taken a dive.
It's been on-again/off-again
for automakers and their plants --
these pick-ups came off the assembly line
only to be stockpiled at this race track
because they lacked chips.
In Kansas City, the Ford plant has spent the year online --
then offline, trying to make the F-150 pick-up --
the best-selling vehicle in America.
The GM plant has largely been closed since February.
It makes the Chevy Malibu sedan --
the kind of car that may disappear in all of this.
- It's been very telling to see which vehicles get priority
and which don't, uh, and I think,
if you're looking for a sneak peek as to which models
may or may not be around much longer, sadly,
it's probably pretty easy to see at this point.
- It's already happening at other automakers,
who are killing off models. The winners?
Higher-priced SUVs and trucks.
Getting more chips into vehicles
will take a reordering of the supply chain --
automakers have to get back in line,
joining laptops, gaming systems, all the electronic gizmos people
keep ordering during the pandemic.
But building more of these high-tech plants is not so easy.
- Because you have facilities that operate
at such high capacity utilization,
you can't just magically create more chips,
and these plants take multiple years to build
and cost billions of dollars to build.
- And the problem is only getting worse --
with new COVID outbreaks at chip plants across Asia.
A global clog in shipping is showing down deliveries
of raw materials like steel and rubber.
For car buyers, it all means there's less selection,
and almost no haggling --
you'll pay what the dealer is asking -- and maybe more.
- If you've got a specific year/make/model/color
and trim that you want,
you're gonna kinda be at the mercy of the -That
makes it a profitable time in the auto business.
Jamie Darvish says nothing's really changed --
people still need cars.
But we may be getting a peek at the future.
- We don't maybe necessarily have to have, you know,
all the inventory sitting on the ground,
you know, when the customer comes in to --
to purchase a car.
- Take advantage of Ford's Built For You program.
- Buyatoyota-dot-com is designed for speed.
- Increasingly, customers are buying them online,
customizing what they want -- and then waiting.
It's that wait that may linger -- until 2023.
- When you drive by the dealership
and you see the empty lot,
we're open, we do have a car flow coming in,
and we can find a car th-that fits your needs.