LAKELAND - A worldwide shortage of automotive parts and computer chips has made bringing in new vehicles a challenge, says the owner of a local dealership.
Tammy Tarrabain of Tarrabain Motors in Lac La Biche, said the industry-wide problem began during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been aggravated by disruptions in global supply chains. As a consequence, not only has this caused a backlog and driven up prices, but it has also made the process of ordering vehicles much longer.
“Not that long ago, a customer would have a four to six month wait to delivery. Now, that wait is often upwards of a year,” she confirmed.
In recent times, the North American automotive industry has been struggling to acquire enough semiconductor material needed to make each of the components required when assembling automobiles.
“Tiny semiconductor chips are in short supply, but are essential, as they account for safety functions in vehicles like airbags and brakes, as well as bonus features such as GPS or touchscreen entertainment systems,” Tarrabain explained. “This has caused a considerable delay in the manufacturing of vehicles, which unfortunately means those vehicles take longer to get to our lots.”
Despite these shortages, Tarrabain and her team has been working hard to hook customers up with new vehicles. She said finding the right vehicle for each individual customer is very important.
“Although we have a fantastic volume and selection, our customers may like a particular vehicle and its features and options, but color may be an issue,” she said. “In order to get the exact vehicles people are looking for, we often work with other dealerships on dealer transfers.”
As it turns out, it isn’t only dealerships that are being affected by this ongoing problem. Many municipal governments – including Lac La Biche County – are also having difficulty acquiring new vehicles and equipment for their public works and construction fleets, as well as other departments.
According to Les Cote, Fleet Services Manager for Lac La Biche County, timelines for ordering vehicles are still quite long, and are nowhere near the three-month mark they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We ordered two pickup trucks on March 6, and they just arrived on August 3,” Cote stated. “However, this is still considerably better than what we were facing a year ago, when the wait was anywhere from eight to nine months.”
The County ordered an International truck chassis on March 21, 2022, which is expected to arrive in Lac La Biche either in October or November.
While the timeline for acquiring trucks is lengthy enough, receiving heavy machinery and other equipment is a much more prolonged period.
“Right now, it can take upwards of one and a half years to receive a grader, while the wait before the pandemic was usually around six months,” Cote continued. “Parts are also taking longer to receive, but at least wait times are reducing. That being said, certain brands and types of tires are much harder to find now, meaning we’ve had to use substitutes.”
The largest impact on the County, however, has been equipment and vehicle price increases.
“Due largely in part to fewer governmental rebates to municipalities, prices are much higher for us. Pre-pandemic, a half-ton pickup truck cost $43,000. That same truck today comes with a price tag of $52,000,” Cote explained. “Two years ago, a grader cost $520,000. By next year, that price is expected to balloon to $618,000.”
According to the Price Index Report of New Vehicles by AutoTrader, the average price of a new vehicle in Canada in June 2023 was $66,288, which is a significant 21.3 percent price increase over June, 2022. Meanwhile, the average price for a used vehicle came in around $39,645, a 4.1 percent increase over the previous year.
Surging demand for new vehicles combined with the global shortage of microchips have also been cited as the primary reasons for longer wait times. As of 2023, the average wait time is around eight months, although for some models, that stretches to well over a year.
