Page 70 - BusinessWest August 18, 2021

New World Order
Factory Ordering Has Become the New Norm in Auto Sales
When asked how many new cars he had on his lot, Rob Pion, general manager of Bob Pion Buick GMC in Chicopee, quickly said “eight.”
And he did so with a subdued voice that con- veyed the frustration that he and every other auto dealer in the 413 is feeling right now regard- ing a situation that is clearly out of their control,
but also a reality that must be confronted.
And the depth of that reality become clear when Pion paused after adding up his new-car inventory in his head and acknowledged that his number is certainly higher than some of his fel- low dealers in the area.
“I guess that’s not really too bad compared to some others,” he told Business- West, adding that this situ-
ation is not going to get appreciably better any- time soon, especially when it comes to the trucks and large SUVs that comprise his bread and but- ter. Consumers don’t have a lot to choose from, so unless they want to settle, and many of them don’t, they must order what they want and wait for it to come in.
“We’ve
never had
so many
cars factory-
ordered.”
Or, as the case may be with many truck mod- els, and to borrow that famous line from the start of Casablanca, ‘wait, and wait, and wait.’
Indeed, these have become the days of fac-
Rob Pion says factory ordering has long been the norm with trucks and some SUVs, but the wait time for some vehicles is now six months to a year.
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70 AUGUST 18, 2021
AUTO SALES
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BusinessWest