In the coming weeks, car buyers will have difficulty finding the model they want in certain colors, and Toyota, Honda and other companies will lose billions of dollars in revenue.
Since an earthquake in Japan halted production at its factories, car supplies are dwindling fast. Locally, dealerships with American-made vehicles aren”t expecting much, if any, disruptions in production, though, even on American brands, many parts — from computer chips to paint pigments — are produced in Japan. Those with foreign-made models are bracing for a shortage.
“I would suspect we”re going to run short on new-car inventory,” said Jim Parham, general manager of Carl Hogan Honda in Columbus.
Parham said he has a “pretty big concern,” though Honda has said they have enough inventory to produce through April.
“It”s mainly the suppliers that have the issues supplying the parts to the manufacturers,” he said.
Toyota has given its dealers a list of 233 replacement parts (out of more than 300,000), including brake rotors, body panels and shock absorbers, that shouldn”t be ordered unless a customer needs one for a repair.
Toyota says that its parts inventory is adequate, but it has restricted orders of some components made by Japanese suppliers to make sure they remain available.
“Right now we haven”t seen any effects, even with the parts, we haven”t had a problem,” said Joey Ferarro, general manager of Carl Hogan Toyota. “As far as our inventory, we”ve got 110 on the ground and a shipment of 80 coming in that will not be affected.”
As a hole, Toyota has more than 250,000 vehicles “on the ground” in the U.S., he said.
“At this point, I”m not concerned,” Ferarro said of his inventory. “We are keeping in close contact with the manufacturers. They expected to start everything up and get everything back rolling in the near future. With the supply we have now and what they can produce once they get up and running, we should be fine.”
At Premier Ford/Lincoln/Mercury in Columbus, the general manager, Chris Keen, doesn”t expect a shortage in inventory, but such popular colors as black and cherry red will have to be special ordered.
Keen received a letter from Ford”s vice president of marketing on Friday, reporting the company expected “no loss of production.”
“Ford”s not seeing the same issues other manufacturers are,” Keen said.
The Carl Hogan GM, Dodge and Jeep dealership likewise does not foresee inventory shortages.
Clyde Rhea, general manager for the dealership, said he has received no notice of potential shortages.
“The Colorado pickup might see some shortages, because of components they get from Japan,” Rhea predicted. “But we haven”t been notified of any yet.”
Columbus Nissan has gotten little communication on how the factory stalls could impact the company.
“Right now, I don”t know how that”s going to affect Nissan,” said Russell Street, general manager.
Nissan is considering moving some engine production to Tennessee from Japan.
Because parts and supplies are shipped by slow-moving boats, the real drop-off has yet to be felt by factories in the U.S., Europe and Asia. That will come by the middle of April. Suppliers could be running again by then, but it could take until May or June for the entire supply base to be back.
IHS Automotive predicts about 5 million vehicles worldwide won”t be built, out of the 72 million vehicles planned for production in 2011.
This story contains reporting from The Associated Press.
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