Why Auto Dealers Can’t Get New Cars and How Long You’ll Have to Wait

Mark Hebert of the National Auto Dealers Association talks about the the biggest reasons car dealers around the country are struggling to find inventory and what the shortage is doing to prices to consumers.

Hebert, who is also President of Shreveport's Hebert's Town & Country dealership, explains that the new car shortage seems to be nationwide. "We'll. they're not on the lot," says Hebert, when asked where the inventory of new cars has gone, "The industry is having this shortage and it goes back to COVID and then microchips that these cars need and we just can't get enough of them.

"Unfortunately, they're all imported and (manufacturers) can't get the chips to finish production of a lot of vehicles."

Then, Hebert explains in more detail. "It is related to COVID. Everybody was working from home. People were buying laptops that use the same microchips. People were buying new, big-screen TVs, video game devices that all use these chips, so when the auto plants were down, due to COVID, they shifted production to TVs and laptops and increased demand for microchips."

But what cars are available and how many are there? "We are getting some cars in," Hebert says, referring to ArkLaTex dealers, "But we won't be able to resupply our lots with the inventory supplies we'd like to have at least through the summer.

"Cars are going out just as fast as they're coming in."

"It's a challenge," Hebert says, "It's not the ideal situation we'd like for our customers, but (dealers and customers) are pretty resilient and we're making it work."