I’m tired of waiting.
Waiting on hold. Waiting in lines. Waiting for deliveries.
And if I want a new vehicle, I’ll have to wait. And wait. And wait. Perhaps as long as six months or more.
And, I’ll be waiting for a vehicle I likely didn’t test drive. That’s because there’s not even enough inventory in some cases to stock lots with enough vehicles that a customer could take for a spin.
But hurry up and wait is the new normal. For just about everything. Including new vehicles.
As John Bardwell, an automotive product strategist at Bond Brand Loyalty in Toronto, said in a Page 1 story: “Get used to it. This is not going to go away. This is how Apple and Tesla have become so profitable.”
But I don’t need to “fit inside” an Apple product. Let’s be honest. Tablets, laptops and smartphones — no matter the make — all operate in similar fashion.
But at 6'7", I need legroom and headroom. As a music lover, I need to hear the audio. As a coach and father of three, I need to see cargo space and configuration. I’ll be honest, I don’t know how many pieces of luggage or baseball bags I can fit into the general description of 4,000 litres — or 140.5 cubic feet — of usable cargo volume.
But as supply chains continue to be choked by a microchip crisis, and inventory remains tight as a result, it’s difficult for a traditionalist such as me to accept the “new normal.”
And I don’t blame dealers and automakers in the least, because, as Bardwell said, “They are selling maybe a few less vehicles, but they’re making full margin on every one.”
The waiting game is being played by everyone, not just new automakers and certainly not just legacy brands. Everyone is making their customers wait.
Just look at Tesla.
As my colleague David Kennedy recently noted: Despite having been scratched from the list of vehicles eligible for the federal Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles (iZEV) program at the end of 2021, the Tesla Model 3 has attracted more ZEV incentive dollars from Ottawa in 2022 than its five closest competitors combined. That’s partly because the EV maker is working through a backlog of orders.
And what if I wanted, say, a Kia Carnival? Well, I can find myself on a waiting list to be placed on a waiting list. Kia Canada is not accepting orders for it. Instead, I can place an “internal” order at a dealership to be able to place an actual order once they’re accepted again.
This is where we’re at: Waiting to wait. And I hate it.
