Automobile Retailers

With huge wave in small cars and gas-sippers, some car companies are experiencing a new kind of problem. They’re running out of cars to sell.

The problem with many of the hybrid and fuel-economy cars that are hitting car lots as of late is that there aren’t enough of them in production. So while Ford is closing down SUV plants and GM is shutting out workers, other car companies are scrambling for more facilities to meet the growing consumer demand. The other side of the story in terms of the recession and the factory lockouts is a very real issue of not having enough vehicles or vehicle-making facilities.

A prime example of this is the top-selling Toyota Prius. This hybrid is selling like hotcakes, to put in mildly, and car dealers are running out of cars. Dealers like Mike Ross at Palmiero Toyota/Scion in Meadville are offering test drives of the Prius for consumers who simply come on their lot. The problem as of late has been that there haven’t been any models of the car to offer up for the test drive. There just aren’t enough to go around!

Mike says that most prospective drivers of the Prius wind up just putting their names on an increasing list and wait their turn. Many people are trading in larger clunkers and SUVs for the Prius or the popular Toyota Scion, which is creating another problem. The backlog of used trucks and SUVs will one day reach its boiling point, too. This is an issue that will need to be addressed, of course. Will anybody be buying these used SUVs soon? Doubtful.

At this point, dealers like Mike Ross are claiming that they could sell 20-25 Prius hybrids a month and who knows how many Scions. But due to the fact that the production of the cars isn’t coming fast enough or with enough volume, Mike’s sales are limited to what he has available.

Drop by your local Scion dealer today and find out if there are any left. If not, you’ll be waiting like the rest of us!

I remember the days when we would stand around and talk about how gas will never reach $2 a gallon. Those were the days, weren’t they? After it reached $2 a gallon, we’d stand around and talk about how it would never reach $3 a gallon. Now, nothing surprises me. Even when predictions say we’re going to hit $5 a gallon gas just after Labor Day, I say, “I believe it completely.”

Maybe I’m so ready to believe it because where I live, I already pay about $4.65 a gallon. Maybe I believe it because the price has practically doubled in the last two years. But I believe it could happen and it probably will. Do you believe it?

One prediction I read was from a guy who predicted when gas would reach $4. At first he predicted the $4 mark by figuring out we were paying an average of a penny more every day. On June 9, he predicted the same thing – gas prices would go up by about a penny each day. And the national average on that day was $4.02. As such, that means it’s going to hit $5 by September 15.

Hopefully, he’s wrong though. By the time that day rolls around, Labor Day will be over by nearly two weeks. And since the summer driving season will come to a close by then, demand will drop drastically. That usually brings prices down, but it doesn’t seem like the prices have followed any type of logic lately.

But it’s really out of our hands. With 10 million vehicles being sold in China alone this year, the possibility of hurricanes and the Middle East controlling the prices, all we can do is pay the price. So why not enjoy it? Visit a local Pontiac dealer and get the car of your dreams. We’re all in this mess together. We might as well have some fun while we’re at it.