I didn’t realize Baltimore was so important for the car market of the Midwest and East Coast. Apparently 800,000+ cars are delivered per year through the Port of Baltimore, but with the bridge collapse today it sounds like shipments could cause some car market issues for a swath of the country.
Regardless of how long it could take, I honestly see so many old models just sitting on dealer lots. People arent buying new cars like they used to. This economy simply won’t allow it.
I work for the auto industry, and this isn’t true unfortunately.
I am a tech at a dealer and they laid off like half of us and 2/3 of the sales lot is a wasteland, while the last 3rd is still 2022 models. Driving around the autocenter in my area in South California, none of the lots are full like they were in 2019.
https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/new-vehicle-inventory-january-2024/
Toyota in Feb 2024 had only 36-days-of-supply. But multiple car companies had so much supply that it bleeds off of the graph (over 160 days of supply for Lincoln, Chrysler, and Dodge).
Japanese cars (or at least: Toyota, Honda, Lexus, and Mazda) are still selling like hotcakes. But American Luxury cars are doing very poorly right now.
Are you sure about that?
The pandemic really put a freeze on car sales, however that just means that everyone who would have bought a car then, and have been putting it off due to the chip shortage and inflation are soon going to find themselves in situations where they will need to replace their cars.
I currently have a 12 year old car and a 10 year old car, and both are very quickly showing their ages to the point where I don’t feel confident taking either on a long drive. As much as I love not having a car payment, I have a feeling within the next year or so I’ll be buying a new one and I doubt I’m the only one in this position.