A lot of confusion swirls around car buying now, what with preorders and back orders and parts shortages. But what everyone understands is the unrelenting demand for new vehicles.
“It’s crazy,” said Thad Szott, whose dealerships sell Ford, Toyota, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram Trucks in Holly, Highland, New Hudson, White Lake and Waterford.
“Our online leads and walk-in traffic are still extremely strong,” he said. “Text messages, Facebook Messenger and phone calls come in early, late and on weekends. There’s a lot of demand out there. I have messages coming in at midnight and 1 o’clock in the morning. It’s like Groundhog’s Day. It’s constant. People are looking for advice. I explain there’s a huge inventory shortage. They have to order something or be flexible if they want something sooner.”
Ford says its factory workers are building vehicles as fast as possible and now shoppers can pretty much count on finding these three vehicles on dealer lots:
- Ford F-150 pickup truck
- Ford Explorer SUV
- Ford Escape compact SUV
Despite a volatile global market, where supply shipments remain uncertain because of fallout from a pandemic that crippled production industrywide over the past two years, Ford is making deliveries to dealerships so folks have something to buy off the lot.
Shipping ASAP
“At one point, almost everything coming in was sold. I’ve got hundreds of vehicles that are built or in the process of being built and shipped to us. That’s two months’ worth of vehicles, from Escape to Super Duty to Transit vans,” said Jeff King, vice president and general manager at Bozard Ford Lincoln in St. Augustine, Florida. “The level of stock units, vehicles the company gives to us that aren’t sold — has increased. We have supply now. There is availability on the ground.”
About half the vehicles coming in are presold now, he told the Free Press on Tuesday.
In Texas, Sam Pack has a 20-day supply of vehicles at his four dealerships in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. When he talked to the Free Press recently, he had 46 Edges, 24 Escapes, 64 Explorers and 229 F-150s and 22 Mustangs.
‘Still weak’
“This is still very weak, but it’s improved significantly from where we were,” said Pack, president and CEO of Pack Auto Group. “Ordering vehicles remains strong. One of the good things is that Ford is locking in interest rates.”
In Michigan, Szott said he has a 20-day supply of Escape, Explorer and F-150 vehicles. If nothing came in for three weeks, Szott Group would be sold out.
About half his shoppers, down from 78% or so, are still leasing. More people just want to take the plunge and finance the purchase because those lease payments have steadily risen and they are longer leases than they once were.
“The market is changing so quickly,” Szott said.
‘Insatiable demand’
Buyers are more likely to find F-Series pickup trucks or Explorer and Escape SUVs on dealer lots because they are established brands with greater factory capacity, said Erich Merkle, U.S. sales analyst at Ford.
For example, the Ford plant in Chicago is primarily devoted to Explorer, three main plants are devoted to F-Series, and Louisville builds the Escape. The Ford plant in Hermosillo, Mexico, assembles both Bronco Sport and Maverick. Bronco has only one plant in Wayne, alongside the popular Ranger truck. The Mustang Mach-E plant in Cuautitlán Izcalli, Mexico, services the world.
There seems to be insatiable demand for Bronco, Bronco Sport, Maverick, the all-electric Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning, Merkle said, making it necessary to order these vehicles in advance rather than count on them being available for sale at dealerships.
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Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-618-1034 or phoward@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid.