The Economy

Damn! That tells you that almost all scheduled production for a damn long time is already spoken for (i.e., has already been booked as a firm order).

 

That's how long a neighbor took to get a swimming pool installed. And I thought that was ridiculous.

 

It has to do with the chain of lead times for this, that and the other thing, and how easy it is to manipulate capacity across those. When they tighten the last screw on a modern automobile and drive it off the line, that's the end result of a chain of processes that stretch across multiple companies and multiple months. If those processes are even slightly booked up, the gap between when you ask something of 'em and when you get that something is going to be a long one.

 

My partner went shopping for a car last year (crossover) and it took her months to get a new one. She only did because she knows the salesman and he called her the second one came in. She signed on it that day.

 

Same thing with replacing my wife's Grand Cherokee. To get one with all the options she wants (mainly heated seats and a sun roof), we'd have to order one right now.

 

The guy tried to help my out to see if they had any on the way, and they didn't. None of it is a local dealership's fault. The manufacturers are killing the dealers. He did say he had plenty of Nissans on the lot I could take home today, but I don't want a Nissan.
At least Toyota does have trucks available if you can get your hands on one. I just wanted to do the build so I didn't have to haggle over $3K worth of dealer-installed options that I don't want.
In Ford's case, they did get delayed by the strike, but they should have been rolling '24s off the line as quick as they could two months before that happened.
I think a lot of the issue with Ford is they went big on these $80-90K F-150s, and nobody is buying them. Dealerships are full of them.

 

I ordered a new Ranger in mid-February 2021. I took possession in late July. Now, the Ranger is sharing the production line with the Bronco, which is selling well. I'm not surprised the wait has been extended.

 

You know what's interesting about that "Millennials/Empty Nesters" thing? Nowhere in the article can you find out how Millennials-With-Kids households stack up frequency-wise relative to Boomer-Empty-Nester households.

 

Millennials will inherit those $500,000+ homes in a few years and be sitting on the kind of equity Boomers had to work a lifetime to achieve.

 

And Gen X gets shafted again.



Naaaah, not really in my case.
I was blessed with two Silent Generation parents who knew the value of hard work and passed that as well as some resources my way. Combine that with the hard work and financial acumen of my wife, and I'm doing OK. I've earned everything I have, paid for with literal blood, sweat, and tears, but I'm not complaining.