My mother used to say that there were lentils to eat. “Either take it or leave it”. And the same is happening with the new car market. The supply chain is absolutely broken. Wait times are exasperating in many cases. And manufacturers already sell closed packages to reduce their deadlines.
Just a few days ago we told you that there is a solution to skip the waiting times for the Tesla Model 3 and Y: pay up to 11,000 euros more for an already registered vehicle than for a new car. It is not something that is only happening in our country. In the United States, there are brands paying bonuses to owners who keep their cars and do not seek to do business with them.
In Spain, buying a new car is becoming more complicated every day. Y configure it to our liking a chimera, unless you order it in time. With a lot of time in advance. Already in December, an increase in average waiting times was registered up to 87 days, when the usual was about four weeks of waiting.
But, right now, receiving a car in 87 days can be good news. Ford, for example, has had to close orders for its Fiesta and Focus. Receiving a Tesla Model 3 can be a matter of half a year. Hyundai and Kia are giving similar deadlines for their Zero Emission models. According to Motorpasión, the BMW i4 can take between nine and twelve months to wait. We know firsthand that companies like Audi have even offered unfinished cars to their customers, promising an upgrade to purchased equipment when it becomes available.
black of course
Henry Ford is considered the inventor of the automotive production line. He got the demand for his Ford T so high that it far outstripped the supply. Legend has it that Henry Ford repeated a phrase: “my customers can buy the Ford T any color they want, as long as it’s black“.
And this is what brands are applying to solve the supply crisis. That the Dacia Spring was the best-selling electric car in Spain in July 2022 is no coincidence: its delivery time is almost immediate. Something similar happens with the Citroën ë-C4, the second best-selling car and which has a delivery time of between one and two months. The same strategy that Renault is also following, who with their Fast Track plan guarantee the delivery of their cars within a maximum period of 30 days.
How do they do that? Like Henry Ford would do: mass manufacturing with closed facilities. Like lentils, take them or leave them. The strategy is being followed by many other manufacturers. Seat has simplified its Arona and Ibiza ranges and the Volkswagen ID.3 is only sold with a 204 hp engine and a 58 kWh battery.
In addition to collecting the price of fuel daily, dieselogasolina.com collects the average waiting time to receive a car for each brand. According to their data, waiting for a Skoda takes 157 days to wait. Only Porsche with 175 days has worse forecasts.
Although inflation has skyrocketed and the economic situation is not helping to sell cars, the truth is that waiting times make something clear: demand is still higher than supply. And buyers can’t or they don’t want to wait so long. Not only in Spain, but in the United States only one in ten buyers is willing to wait a year for their car to be delivered.
In a market where new cars are scarce and expensive, there are also those who are taking the opportunity to sell their old vehicles. According to Anfac, “during 2021, 1,257,787 passenger car units over 10 years old were sold. A much higher figure than the 859,476 new passenger car units registered last year.” And for every new car sold, the second-hand market sells 1.4 cars that are more than 10 years old.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism