Skip to main content

Looking to a buy a car? A national shortage means you’ll probably pay more

Car sales plummeted in the spring, causing shipment lots to overfill and forcing cargo ships to hold new vehicles at sea for weeks. And with few sales and facing state shutdown orders, auto manufacturers like Ford Motor and General Motors halted production lines.

It was starting to look like another automotive crisis.

But fast-forward to August, where monthly vehicle sales were nearly 1.4 million—matching pre-pandemic sales of February and almost double the 745,353 vehicle sales in April. That’s what you call a V-shaped recovery.

The rebound was so fast that new and used vehicles skipped right from oversupply to shortage—which is driving up prices. The average list price of new vehicles in August is $39,410, up $807 from May, according to Edmunds.com. While the average price in August for used vehicles is $21,843, up $920 from May.

“In the second quarter, every major auto manufacturer shut down production—for the first time since World War II—which led to inventory shortages that are still being felt today,” Jared Allen, vice president of communications of the National Automobile Dealers Association told Fortune. “On top of that, the shortage of new-vehicle inventory has pushed many buyers to the used-car market, where supply is also low. The result is a significant increase in prices for used vehicles, as well.”

The combination of an improved economy—and older Americans trying to avoid public transportation during the pandemic—is driving up sales at auto dealerships. And it’s pushed inventory numbers for new vehicles to an eight-year low, according to Wards Intelligence.

When will auto production catch back up?

“We expect this to be temporary … barring any unexpected parts delays or vehicle plant shutdowns stemming from new COVID-19 outbreaks, we expect that vehicle inventory levels will be at close to normal levels,” Allen says. Beyond cars, the economy at large is facing widespread shortages caused by the production shutdowns in the spring and resurgent demand in the summer. Everything from lumber, coins, ammo, beef, to medical supplies has been affected.

Shortages might bring higher prices for consumers, but on the flip side it means plenty of business for manufacturers.

More must-read finance coverage from Fortune:



from Fortune https://ift.tt/35T70s7
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Photo finish: Crashing sales force Olympus to sell iconic camera business

Sometimes, the vicissitudes of capitalism force companies to exit the businesses for which they’re best known. Olympus, once a leading light in the photography industry, is now joining that list. On Wednesday, the company said it planned to quit its 84-year-old camera business. The imaging giant, known for its once-pervasive digital cameras, agreed to sell off the declining unit by year’s end. Japan Industrial Partners, a private equity firm best known for buying Sony’s struggling Vaio computer line in 2014, agreed to purchase the business. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. A glance at Olympus’s financial statements provides all the rationale for the divestiture; as at rival manufacturers, camera sales have plummeted over the past decade. For the fiscal year ended March 31, Olympus’s camera unit declined 10% versus the year prior to  ¥43.6 billion, or $407 million. The unit’s sales have collapsed by three-quarters from a decade ago, when the company brought in ¥175 bill...
Post a Comment
Read more

WHO says common steroids can slash death risk for the sickest coronavirus patients

Our mission to help you navigate the new normal is fueled by subscribers. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism,  subscribe today . An old drug can learn new tricks during the coronavirus pandemic. That’s the main takeaway from the World Health Organization (WHO) in a new analysis of corticosteroids—a class of drugs which have existed for dozens of years and are far cheaper than new, experimental COVID treatments in development—suggesting that drugs like dexamethasone can slash the chances of COVID-19 related deaths by as much as 35% in the sickest patients. The WHO analysis of coronavirus drugs encompassed seven separate studies. And while an analysis of this sort—what’s called a “meta-analysis”—isn’t as rigorous as other types of trials like a randomized controlled study, the data are compelling. Corticosteroids have a very different action mechanism from many of the other coronavirus drugs in development. COVID-19 is a peculiar disease. Some who have been infected ma...
Post a Comment
Read more