Inventory remains scarce at Canadian dealerships

Dealers are struggling to find inventory as popular models are being purchased as soon as they become available, and many dealerships are finding they are waiting two to four months for their orders to arrive, the CBC reports.

Ted Smith, senior salesperson at Jim Tubman Chevrolet in Ottawa, told the CBC that “the car production slowdown has driven up the price of used vehicles so much that one that’s a year-and-a-half old can now sell for more than what the owner initially paid.”

Oumar Dicko, Chief Economist with the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) points out that concerns the chip shortage will drag through to next year is bad news for dealers wanting to make up for 2020 losses. “There’s a lot of pent-up demand, new demand created by the pandemic, and now we have to find vehicles to provide for those customers,” Dicko said, adding that “a recent survey of [CADA] members found that more than 90 per cent expect the inventory issue to be their biggest problem for several more months.”

According to Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, Canada doesn’t currently produce large amounts of semiconductors, an issue which has been a primary focus for the Canadian industry of late. “I think COVID taught us that there are just some goods that you have to have a domestic reserve of,” Volpe told the CBC, “Not just for cars but for everything else that we’re doing.”

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