How Does The Inventory Shortage Impact Car Maintenance And Repair?

The global shortage of electronic chips and motherboards has significantly impacted car maintenance and repair, along with every other industry relying on technology to manufacture their goods. Plus, the shortage of available cars to purchase new has made an even more significant impact on the industry, which is good news for some, but bad news for others.

The inventory shortage of computer chips and vehicles has impacted the car maintenance and repair industries in several ways.

• Used car sales are up, so repair shops are swamped with work.
• The increase in consumer demand causes longer waiting times to get work done.
• The decrease in available parts also increases the time owners have to wait to fix their cars and trucks.

The shortage of computer chips affects everything in the supply chain, which spirals down to used car lots and the repair shops that fix them. Which all circles back around to the lack of needed parts.

What it all boils down to is supply and demand. New car makers lack the supply to meet the consumers’ demand, which trickles down to used car lots that are booming. This means car maintenance and repair shops struggle to keep up with the considerable increase of used cars needing to be fixed.

Let’s dig deeper into this to better understand why inventory shortages have impacted the car repair industry.

Increase In Demand For Car Maintenance And Repair

Trying to buy a new car today can be rough at times, if not impossible if you want something particular. If you have the patience to wait, you can order the vehicle you want and receive it in the order that the manufacturer received the request. This can take some time and, as you would expect, some serious amounts of money. If you have ever ordered a Corvette, you will understand.

This means that consumers are opting to purchase used vehicles close to what they want that are available right now. Used cars that need maintenance and repairs, especially if the previous owner did not take care of the vehicle. Even if they were cared for, the older a car gets, the more it will require maintenance to keep it in good running condition.

Car repair shops are finding themselves slammed with work, which increases their need for certified mechanics to get through the piles of repairs that need to be completed. Unfortunately, the lack of qualified workers has also plagued the car repair industry, so it takes longer to complete any type of work on a vehicle because the owner must wait in a long line of customers before them.

Increase In Wait Times For Car Repairs And Maintenance

In the past, a good repair shop would be booked out for several days, which meant that you might have to wait a week or so to get any work done. That wait is a little longer now because of two very different reasons.

• Supply Shortage – The biggest problem with supply and demand is that it is a vast circle that relies on each other to be successful. Supply shortages make the demand for the product increase to the point of being out of control.

When consumers see the trend happening, they will try and shift over to something else that will satisfy their needs, which in this case is used cars. More used cars on the roads mean more repairs need to be done, so every shop open for business will get flooded with new work daily. This means that you will wait longer for your repairs.

• Technician Shortage – As with every other industry in the world, car repair shops are having a hard time finding, and keeping, qualified technicians. Since the need for repairs has increased, the shop needs to hire more technicians to keep up.

Technicians that they cannot find. Without the extra help, the shops cannot keep up with the demand, increasing the wait time people encounter when needing repairs.

When you find a good shop, like Easton Motors Auto Service in Wisconsin, you must take advantage of it. When you need repairs, schedule it as quickly as possible so you will not have to wait long to get it back, all fixed up and ready to go.

Conclusion

The shortage of computer chips worldwide has caused a landslide of problems for many industries, including car maintenance and repair. Even when things get caught up and the new car industry catches up with the demand, the shops that complete the repairs will still be swamped with work, especially those that can work on hybrid and electric cars.

Until things get caught up, though, the industry will continue to scramble to keep up. It is a good idea to keep in mind that these problems are outside of the control of the repair shops, so be patient because they are doing the best they can with the resources they have.