MECHANICAL DIVISION DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE
Positive New Trends by Jeremy Nordgren, AASP-MN Mechanical Division Director
The longer people keep their car, the better it usually is for the repair industry, and this year we have seen a positive trend in our favor. The availability of new cars has drastically changed since previous years. This put people in a position where they couldn’t buy a new car even if they wanted to. The chip shortage is still having a big impact on new car production, as well as plants or lines being shut down for various reasons. With new cars being harder to get, a lot of people turned to used cars as an alternative. Buy used and let someone else take the big depreciation hit was a common topic in conversations with our customers. However, with the price of used cars going up, they often exceed the price they sold for when new. Now people are in a unique situation – wanting a new car even more since their car was worth more, but being unable to find a car they want due to the inventory shortage. If they were able to find a car, sticker shock was common. A lot of cars were being sold for full sticker price or higher due to demand. All of these roadblocks to a new or used car purchase
left people with a now popular decision to keep their current car for at least another year or two. We saw a lot of cars come in that looked like they had been sitting in the driveway for a couple of years without use. Customers had to decide whether or not to invest in fixing their old vehicle or overpay for a new or used one. We saw an even greater number of people put more money into their car than what it would’ve been worth a year ago. We are only a couple of months away from 2022, a new year with potentially more new trends. Some predict that supply will return to normal levels and others say that pricing will never go back down. What do you think will happen with the new and used car market next year and how will it impact your business?
AASP-MN News
WELCOME NEW MEMBER SEPTEMBER 2021 Werkstatt, Inc. Rochester
October 2021 | 5
