Kentuckiana car dealerships working around nationwide part shortages

CLARKSVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- Nationwide part shortages are leaving car dealerships in Kentuckiana in a pinch.

Right now, Coyle Chevrolet/Buick GMC in Clarksville has about 300 cars in its lot, ready for someone to purchase. Before the pandemic, the general manager said, they would have closer to 1,000 vehicles ready to go.

Nowadays, people have fewer options if they want their car new quickly.

"We all are kind of flying by the seat of our pants right now, trying to figure out what the manufacturer is going to give us," Jon Blakely, general manager at Coyle.

Blakely said manufacturers are still cutting back on production because of the ongoing chip shortage.

"That's been the biggest kind of hang up on all that. We were trying to do the best we can with product availability, but you might want something that's custom today that they say is available, but two weeks down the road it's just not available because there's another shortage, so it's been really tough," Blakely said.

He said about three years ago you'd be waiting for your custom, new car for about four to six weeks. Now, it takes about eight to 10 weeks.

"If you want something that's pretty basic, it's pretty easy to get. But if you want something with the bigger wheels and the navigation and the touchscreen and the rear entertainment, that's when we start to run into a few issues," Blakely said.

And, if you are trying to order the new and very popular RAV4 from Oxmoor Toyota, it could take months.

"If the manufacturer has built out all of their allocations, all their demand for RAV4s, then they they're not going to shift their parts to that vehicle line," Blakely said.

Blakely said it's a challenging time for them as well as all dealerships across the nation.

"It's definitely a challenging, challenging time for both us and the consumer. We try to do our best to make everything as easy and simple as possible for them," he said. "I will go ahead and place your order today. Because you never know what tomorrow might bring."

Blakely said they have about 25 to 30 pending sales. In other words, about 30 people are waiting for their car to arrive.