No laughing at customers: N.B. car dealerships shift gears as supply problems continue
CBC
Buying a new car in New Brunswick? Depending on what you're after, there might not be any tires to kick.
Dealerships have had to change their selling tactics, "because we're selling air — we don't have anything," said Bruce Koroscil, a director of the New Brunswick Automobile Dealers Association.
Following industry-altering supply shortages throughout the pandemic, Koroscil said, everything depends on the individual dealer you're buying from.
His own experience working at McClure Toyota in Grand Falls speaks to the struggle.
"Our next door neighbour is a Hyundai dealer, and he's got 40 new cars brought in," Koroscil said. "I don't have one."
Nearly all of his dealership's sales are vehicles ordered directly from Toyota. This means customers don't get the chance to pick a car off the lot and get to try out the exact car they are buying.
Before the pandemic, he estimated, only about 10 per cent of cars had to be ordered from the factory.
The process of buying a car has been flipped on its head, leaving dealers with little to no inventory to showcase.
"We can't have a store if we've got nothing to sell," Koroscil said.
Not all dealerships are in the same position.
Chad Livingston, general sales manager at Riverview Ford in Fredericton, said he can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Inventory is not quite back to pre-COVID days, he said, when the dealership stocked 200 vehicles. Today, there are between 60 and 100 new cars in stock.
Livingston finds demand for new vehicles slightly down and points to rising costs. The used-car market is busier as a result, he said.
The new cars currently listed on Riverview Ford's website range from $48,000 to $89,000. On the other hand, their pre-owned vehicles start as low as $12,000.