If you're thinking of buying a new car and looking for a bargain or even a good deal, wait until June next year. Most new cars are in such short supply that some buyers are paying dealers a "delivery fee" of $10,000 on top of the full retail price. Makes sense when the official wait list for many big sellers is six months.
How bad are things with the carmakers? On Thursday, Stellantis, the world's sixth-largest metal mover (7 million units a year), maker of brands like Mazer, Jeep, Fiat, Alfa and the Gauloises-smoking architects' favourite, Citroen, reported that shipments for the third quarter were down 27 per cent primarily because of the loss of 600,000 vehicles, due to unfilled semiconductor orders. These days, cars have up to 3000 chips in them.
While most automakers are saying things are just peachy and it's not affecting how we put the cars together, Peugeot is replacing digital speedos with analog (remember them); Porker USA has devastated Macan buyers by telling them no more 18-way seat adjustments; the US's second-biggest vehicle, Ram trucks, no longer come with intelligent rear-view mirrors and Nissan has cut out navigation systems on a third of its cars.
The big carmakers are putting the available chips in their most expensive, highest-margin vehicles. Most carmakers have stopped production at some of their factories and most have lots of unfinished cars sitting on hectares of land near the plant. And shipping delays have made things even worse if you're a long away from the nearest factory, like we are in Australia.
In any other business, all this pain would be bad news. Not in car land. Short supply means higher prices, fewer discounts and so higher margins.
So, in Australia Genesis, Honda and Mercedes are moving or have moved to a fixed-price model like Tesla (which doesn't sell real cars anyway). Most Australian consumer car buyers like to haggle on price to think they're getting a good deal. Most never do.
Now the industry is changing. In the US this year nearly 40 per cent of cars will be sold online. The biggies are publicly listed used car sites like Carvana, best known for its multi-story car vending machines. Last year Carvana sold a quarter of a million cars and is growing at a leisurely 96 per cent a year.
Anyway, forget new car fantasies and feast your eyes on this wondrous blue 1993 XJ220 with 295 miles on the clock. RM Sotheby's have it ready in London for you to take home next Saturday for no fixed price, but let me suggest $800k.