by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
Frustrated by lack of choice and puffed-up prices, many customers walked.
There are now tens of thousands of newly built vehicles parked all over the place that are mostly finished but are still awaiting a microchip or a component that couldn’t be delivered to the assembly plant due to the semiconductor shortage. These unfinished vehicles are drivable but not salable.
In July, it emerged that Ford had plans to send unfinished F-series trucks to its dealers on an opt-in basis, and let them sit on their lots – rather than on rented storage lots – until the chips or components catch up, and are sent to the dealers that can then install them, and then sell the finished vehicles.