Only 20 or so cars on the lot

[circatee]

I live in Kennesaw, GA, and my closest Ford dealership is Jim Tidwell Ford. For years, I have been visiting that place, plus I get my services and such there, too.

A few days ago, I visited the place. Do you know they did not have no more than 20 new vehicles on the lot? And, almost 90% of them were F150 variations.

 

Maybe I missed, it, I am guessing there is a shortage of cars at the moment? 

I know there is a chip shortage for PC. But...

[omar302]

46 minutes ago, circatee said:

I know there is a chip shortage for PC. But...

 

Modern vehicles have many chips in them to run the different electronic modules, hence even vehicle production is affected by the chip shortages.

[akirby]

1 hour ago, circatee said:

I live in Kennesaw, GA, and my closest Ford dealership is Jim Tidwell Ford. For years, I have been visiting that place, plus I get my services and such there, too.

A few days ago, I visited the place. Do you know they did not have no more than 20 new vehicles on the lot? And, almost 90% of them were F150 variations.

 

Maybe I missed, it, I am guessing there is a shortage of cars at the moment? 

I know there is a chip shortage for PC. But...

Hey I’m in Canton!  How could you have missed the chip shortage affecting car production?  It’s affecting everyone but Ford is even worse because they also had a fire shut down their supplier in Japan.  Jeep dealer in Jasper had 13 vehicles total.  Chevy isn’t much better.  Most everyone has dropped rebates and dealers are asking MSRP.   Ford even raised prices across the board.  It is starting to get better but it will be several months to a year or more before production is back to normal.

[JoeVic]

Recently from Ford:

 

 

The global semiconductor shortage continues to affect global automakers and other industries in all parts of the world. While we continue to manufacture new vehicles, we’re prioritizing building our customers’ vehicles that were assembled without certain parts due to the industry-wide semiconductor shortage. This is in line with our commitment to get our customers their vehicles as soon as possible and consistent with our forecasted supply.

To prioritize these builds, we are changing production plans at some plants in North America. Specifically:
 

• Chicago Assembly Plant will be down the weeks of July 5, 12, 19 and 26 and will run two shifts the week of Aug. 2
• Dearborn Truck Plant will run two crews the weeks of July 12, 19 and 26
• Flat Rock Assembly Plant will be down the weeks of July 12 and 19
• Hermosillo Assembly Plant will run one of two shifts the weeks of July 12 and 19
• Kansas City Assembly Plant F-150 line will be down the weeks of July 12 and 19, while the KCAP Transit line will be down the week of July 19
• Kentucky Truck Plant will be down the week of July 12 and run two shifts the weeks of July 19, 26 and Aug. 2
• Louisville Assembly Plant will run on a reduced schedule the week of July 19
• Oakville Assembly Complex will produce Nautilus only the weeks of July 19, 26 and Aug. 2

Individual Powertrain and Stamping plants will provide specifics around their operating patterns as they are confirmed. Separately, Michigan Assembly Plant will be down the weeks of July 5 and 26 due to an unrelated part shortage.

Our teams continue making the most of our available semiconductor allocation, finding unique solutions to provide as many high-quality vehicles as possible to our dealers and customers.  Thank you for your continued commitment to build high-quality vehicles for our customers and dealers and for your flexibility. Stay safe!

#BuiltFordProud
John

[CrackedDSM]

Wonder how them moving their entire production to Mexico is gonna effect things too. 

[akirby]

57 minutes ago, CrackedDSM said:

Wonder how them moving their entire production to Mexico is gonna effect things too. 

Who is moving their entire production to Mexico?

[CrackedDSM]

18 hours ago, akirby said:

Who is moving their entire production to Mexico?

Ford apparently. 

[akirby]

7 hours ago, CrackedDSM said:

Ford apparently. 

Thats a ridiculous statement.

[enigma-2]

Was at my dealer couple of weeks ago to replace a wheel (some dumba°° hit a curb and damaged the wheel).

 

Dealer had a "absolutely like new", 2-seat 1955 T-bird convertible, in the showroom. Total OEM. Original air in tires. (OK, May be an exaggeration but...) Red. First one the dealer received from Ford. Loved it so much he kept it. Shined like brand new. (Whimper).

 

It was grandpa's (original owner of dealership), then dad's and finally grandson's (family dealership). 100% OEM. Stored in a building grandpa built for his collection. Beautiful. (Pant, pant, pant.)

 

But that was the 'only' car he had in the showroom. Told me very difficult to get cars. Said the ones on order are already spoken for. Taking names. Refusing to add add on premium charge because he thinks people will remember when cars are in good supply again. 

 

Had received two Nautilus so far. First one sold first day, second one sold on transport truck. Fully loaded. Has waiting list. 

 

Local lawn & garden dealer has NO product. None. Zero. Plenty of people looking to by. Sells Simplicity & Cub Cadet (among others).

 

Local grocery stores are also running low on products. Includes Martin's and Kroger's. Some shelves bare like last year. 

[niceonept]

On 7/3/2021 at 7:36 PM, CrackedDSM said:

Ford apparently. 

Ford have assembly plants in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, India, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, USA, Venezuela and Vietnam as well as in Mexico.

Why would they (and how could they) possibly close all of them to produce vehicles only in Mexico??

[enigma-2]

Ford announced couple of days ago that they still have a huge backlog of vehicles. Ford said they are going to ship vehicles direct to dealers, without chips, and allow the dealers to finish build the car.

 

Allows prospective customers to pick out their car they like and make a sale, before it's drivable.

 

RE: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a37050732/ford-dealerships-chip-supply-shortage/

[normkol]

All this talk about installing the "chips" is a misnomer, I believe. The chips are part of assemblies, circuit boards, etc. It's not just a case of plugging in a chip.

I wonder if the cars can be driven without the missing chips. If not, handling them would be a royal pain.

[akirby]

47 minutes ago, normkol said:

All this talk about installing the "chips" is a misnomer, I believe. The chips are part of assemblies, circuit boards, etc. It's not just a case of plugging in a chip.

I wonder if the cars can be driven without the missing chips. If not, handling them would be a royal pain.

They are modules that do, in fact, plug in and yes the vehicles are driveable.

[niceonept]

2 hours ago, akirby said:

They are modules that do, in fact, plug in and yes the vehicles are driveable.

What concerns me is because everything on the car is now managed by a computer (even the automatic gearbox) one day Ford might decide it is no longer "supported" and the entire car then becomes one huge, expensive brick.

[akirby]

4 hours ago, niceonept said:

What concerns me is because everything on the car is now managed by a computer (even the automatic gearbox) one day Ford might decide it is no longer "supported" and the entire car then becomes one huge, expensive brick.

Electronics rarely just stop working after several years unless they are damaged.  If they’re defective they fail quickly.  30 yr old vehicles have computers - has parts ever been an issue?

[enigma-2]

10 hours ago, akirby said:

They are modules that do, in fact, plug in and yes the vehicles are driveable.

 

Unless the chips are for the PCM. (Or a half dozen other control modules.)

 

Think there's 30 or 40 modules on modern vehicles, don't know how many or what's missing. Ford's paying less than one hour for dealer techs to install, so can't be too involved. 

 

The F150's are getting chips, but little for the CUVs. And Renesas Electronics is still recovering from the fire and not yet back to full capacity. 

Edited July 24, 2021 by enigma-2

[akirby]

2 hours ago, enigma-2 said:

 

Unless the chips are for the PCM. (Or a half dozen other control modules.)

They wouldn’t build them without a PCM - how would you get them off the assembly line?

[enigma-2]

Well, one way would be to install the PCM, drive the car to the lot, remove the PCM and take it back to another vehicle and do the same thing. (I wasn't able to find out what chips exactly, looks like it involves just about all of them - in varying degrees). Doubt that the chip manufacturers are building just the chips that go in the PCM modules and ignoring the rest. Pretty much an all-or-nothing product line. (Chips for radios and the like would be sourced differently of course. 

 

I do know that the F150's are getting the chips, when they do come in. 

 

I agree with Biden's plan to create investment for chip manufacturers here in the states. We're too dependent on foreign (ahem) countries for our critical infrastructure. 

[17SportFL]

1) It's a global issue as ALL vehicles (cars, trucks, RV's, boats, motorcycles, etc.) have become more electronic laden over the years.

2) The work from home situation exacerbated the situation as people and companies upgraded computers and systems to handle more remote workers. The hardware manufacturers ramped up their orders  when they saw what was happening.

3) Conversely, auto manufacturers delayed or canceled orders at the pandemic's onset because they thought their sales would decline due to fewer people traveling to offices and more layoffs equating to fewer vehicle sales.

4) Because auto, motorcycle, RV, marine engine, etc. manufacturers operate on a JIT (just in time) lean manufacturing philosophy, when they realized their sales weren't declining, but actually increasing, they rushed to place chip orders, only to realize they were late to the game and fell behind computer hardware, smart home product, etc. manufacturers. Due to there only being a relatively few number of chip manufacturers worldwide facing their own supply issues, the initial reaction by the vehicle manufacturers is proving to be the major league PITA they're experiencing now.

5) As big as Earth is, it is actually fairly small as we operate in a true global economy with one tiny pebble tossed in a pond somewhere able to create ripple effects everywhere...