Worldwide Semiconductor Shortage Impacting Supply For Local Car Dealerships

A computer chip shortage has slowed down automotive production which means fewer available cars for sale on dealers’ lots.

The shortage was caused by the pandemic hurting car sales, which lead automakers to cancel their chip orders.

“It may be the processor that controls the radio, maybe something that controls adaptive cruise control,” Jared Glover, Vice President of the Jim Glover auto family, said.

Glover said the shortage of semiconductor chips is affecting a lot of industries because they are the brains of just about any modern device.

Since the shortage has affected new car volume at the dealership, Glover said they've had to change how they do business. 

"The good thing that has come of it is that people have been able to custom order things, we have done that a lot,” Glover said.

Instead of someone choosing what's in stock, they'll order something specific for each customer and get it built and delivered within 60 to 90 days. Glover said they expect automotive manufactures to start catching up sometime this fall.

"The point it's completely back to normal, where there are options to choose from, probably going to be next year,” Glover said.

Until then, they still plan to rely a lot on custom orders.

"We have had a great summer and we have had to be creative and come up with new ways to fill that demand,” Glover said.

Glover said trade-in values for used cars have never been better as that market is strong right now.