Page 71 - BusinessWest August 18, 2021

Peter Wirth says that, while Mercedes-Benz of Springfield has always handled a good number of factory-ordered vehicles, those numbers have never been higher than they are now.
ages, or even a rare color. And when it comes to pickups, especially the larger models used for tow- ing, factory ordering has long been a com- mon practice.
But in these days when factories — dealing with short- ages of not only microchips but a host of other parts
— are well behind
in production at a time when demand is high, factory ordering has become, well, the order of the day for many makes, espe- cially pickups and SUVs, but also luxury
models, which cus- tomers are generally more willing to wait for.
“We’ve never had so many cars factory- ordered,” said Peter Wirth, co-owner
of Mercedes-Benz
These factory-ordered cars are certainly help- ing dealers cope with inventory levels that are unprecedented, said Wirth, adding that, current- ly, perhaps 75% of total new-car sales are hap- pening in this fashion.
“How many cars we have in our inventory is not a good measuring stick for us,” he went on. “It’s more a question of ‘what percentage of peo- ple who want to buy a car from us can we take
“Before, you didn’t see that many factory orders — it would be the oddball unit. Now, we’re almost in a build-to-delivery stage, particularly with some of the domestics, like Ford; they’re really encouraging people to just put in their order — they know they’re making a car that the customer wants.
care of?’ And the answer is still relatively high, as long as the customer is willing to work with us. And two things are helping us — the first is that the luxury-car buyer is generally more patient, and two, it’s been all over the media, so they’re generally used to it; they’ve heard from another
eyond for the
”
tory-ordered vehicles — a trend that is a world removed from what dealers in this area are gen- erally used to.
Yes, there have always been times when a customer would have to order and then wait for a model with a number of specific features, pack-
of Springfield. “We have perhaps 50 cars at the moment that are already sold and just waiting to come in. Next month, for example, we have cars coming for inventory, and we have another 25 cars that are pre-sold.”
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