Shortage of New Vehicles is Ancient History, Here’s Proof

Remember the parts shortages, production issues and dearth of new vehicles on dealer lots during the COVID-19 pandemic? Well, aside from a few exceptions at Hyundai, Toyota and a few others, those days are long gone.

A new report by S&P Global Mobility reveals that automakers in North America were sitting on almost 2.9 million new vehicles in June, up 57 percent versus the same month last year and marking 13 straight months of inventory increases.

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Even more stunning, there are now more than three times as many new vehicles waiting for customers as there were three years ago at the height of the pandemic.

For shoppers, this is excellent news, of course. It means having much more selection and waiting a lot less time to take delivery of their new car, SUV or truck. Oftentimes, the exact model they want can already be found in a dealer lot somewhere and they don’t have to order it from the factory.

Granted, part of the reason why new vehicle inventories have increased so much is rising prices across the industry combined with high interest rates for the most part. Some automakers have gone back to their old habits of offering sweet deals and discounts to lure potential customers, but the fact is that fewer people are currently looking to buy a new vehicle or can afford to.

Incidentally, we’re curious to see what Canadian sales totals will look like at the end of the year. They were up 11.8 percent in 2023—the largest increase since 1997—but don’t expect anything close to that in 2024.