The car industry has been struggling ever since the pandemic started to get microchips, everyday parts and even cars delivered all over the country, and the West Valley is no stranger to that.
Covid-19 has created all sorts of chaos for every industry, but the car industry is one that has been hit extremely hard. Service workers, sales workers and car shoppers have been put in a bad position, since car parts and cars, in general, have not been able to be shipped. Cars are a huge part of our society, so when they are not being regularly circulated, it affects everyone.
Microchips and regular maintenance parts for cars being delayed has created major issues in the car industry. Without these parts, cars are not able to be regularly fixed or produced. A service advisor from Arrowhead Cadillac, Daniel Agosto, talked about this problem and why it is happening.
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Agosto said, “Without these chips, the cars’ systems won’t function,” and that the everyday replacement parts, “are taking longer to get, due to supply chain issues and staffing at plants that make parts.”
Microchips have recently been produced and are used on certain cars. Since these cars do not work without the chips and they are not being shipped, it is affecting the lots of dealerships. An accounting controller, Yuki Oshiro, talked about how difficult it is and how little cars they had.
Oshiro said that, “ The summer was rough with inventory around the nation at an all time low, where some dealers did not have any new vehicles to sell.”
Dealerships in the West Valley are trying to reassure their customers, but it is hard when people are looking for cars to purchase and there are sometimes none that they can even look at. A recent car buyer, Jake Ekulnd, is one of these car shoppers who was looking for months just to find a car.
He just recently moved to Arizona and sold his old car before moving out here. He was excited to go out and look for a car before he realized how difficult it was during this time. Eklund said that, “It took so long because parts are on recall,” and that, “Just an oil filter can take months to order because they’re sold out everywhere.”
The pandemic caused a lot of people to start working from home, so their cars would be sitting for long periods of time. Then, quarantine ended and people started going back to work and using their cars again. Since their cars were sitting for so long, it created issues for their vehicles, so they would bring their cars to service advisors who sometimes could not fix the issues right away.
Service advisors and mechanics are working hard with one another to appease their customers, but without the parts and loaner cars there is little they can do. The service advisor from Arrowhead Cadillac, Daniel Agosto in the West Valley experiences these issues everyday.
Agosto talked about how the pandemic has made the service industry busier saying, “People are having to keep their cars on the road longer, instead of trading them in or replacing them.” Since service advisors are busier, it is hard for them to keep up with the needs of their customers. He said that customers are frustrated and are forced to take other forms of transportation.
Customers look to rental car companies, but they are also struggling with being able to have cars.
Dealerships like Arrowhead Cadillac are doing everything they can to make this stressful time a little bit easier for the customers.
Agosto said that their dealership has, “added a valet service where we pick up and deliver their cars for service free of charge to help.”
Prospective car buyers, service advisors and sales advisors have been going through a rough patch for over a year, but they are continuing to push through it.
