Be prepared to pay sticker PRI$$$$E!

6 to 7 hours? All in one day? My max is about an hour. The Blazer with @chevysalesgirl a couple years ago was 20 mins. It took longer going over all the features, etc.

I do agree with decision fatigue. Sometimes it can be a bit much.

How hard can it be to manufacture these chips?

And, what’s causing the chip shortage?

Something tells me we aren’t getting the full story on this.

Yes. Not all dealers are great with this stuff. This is my second lease, both times BMW and it always takes so long. I wonder if it’s bmw or the dealership itself or what.

It’s probably your dealership. I was in and out in like 1.5-2 hours, and that’s mainly because I wasted time looking at and talking about the M Cars with the salespeople.

Hard is relative. It’s not hard as in there aren’t companies with the capability to do it. But you can use your hands to count the number of companies with the capability to do it. And those companies are busy making product for customers who didn’t panic cancel all of their orders last year. Production schedules for for semiconductors are set many months in advance. Supply chain managers at auto manufacturers thought they were being clever last year by predicting a covid great depression and panic canceling orders with suppliers. So now they get to rejoin at the back of the line for production capacity. Turns out “just in time” doesn’t work for semiconductors.

5 Likes

My understanding is that profit margins are higher on PC chips, so whatever is being made preferentially shunted to PCs, not cars.

Plus scaling up manufacturing isn’t easy if you were already running at capacity. Customized machines to do high throughout semi conductor manufacturing isn’t just sitting on a shelf somewhere. Whole buildings are built around them. So now they have to balance trying to scale up demand and not find themselves overleveraged when the demand drops and now they have a bunch of hardware doing nothing.

Not everything is a conspiracy.

5 Likes

Statement is correct, but should also note that this problem has been exacerbated by underinvestment in domestic semiconductor manufacturing. The chip shortage does not affect cars. It’s also a matter of national security, with the defense industry heavily reliant on foreign-made microchips to power military tech.

3 Likes

Sounds awfully lot like someone in charge of a conspiracy would say :slight_smile:

5 Likes

I’ll never go back to normal leasing. Dealing with the hawks on route 22 all dressed in their best goodfellas suits just waiting for you to get outta the car @ Liccardi, etc… Screw that.

Have always leased, but finding out what can be done through a LH broker (even just MSDs) or not having to deal with the final boss / finance manager is worth it.

Will admit I don’t have more than a few hours, and I know when I’m outta my league. I just contact a lease broker to take care of it and pay the $300-400, usually making it up via BonusDrive (3 XC40’s)

I do have a favorite lease broker now who got my gf a $81/month 2021 Leaf, delivered one XC40 himself during the height of the pandemic, and gave me a heads up to hold off on a Tesla until NJ Charge Up is back.

No having to deal with finance managers too, he had it pre-setup ‘no’ on all the bullshit, TruCoat, etc.

Thank all you LH’s and brokers, especially @aronchi - You give us faith in leasing again, after we’re pre-conditioned to need a Xanax walking into dealers, and a second upon reaching the ‘final boss’ finance manager.

9 Likes

This is absolutely what is going on

It’s the Amazon consumer-like convenience experience. It’s also a major indictment of the shady car dealer and used car lot system.

No research, no due-diligence. Just click and have an overpriced 2-3 year old car about to go off warrantty show up in your driveway just like the commercial.

1 Like

Oil refining isn’t rocket science either but there are only a handful of players with the economy of scale to be profitable in a business with mediocre margins. Plus, breaking ground on a new plant today would take years to come online.

1 Like

Yeah, 99% of Americans would be better off using a lease broker. That almost goes without saying. But finding an honest broker isn’t easy either. You would probably have to spend an hour on leasehackr to figure out that if you want a Volvo in NJ you should either be really good at leasing and have free time or use @aronchi.

Someone doing a quick Google search is gonna have no idea how to find a reputable broker.

2 Likes

Depending on the type of chip and the process being used to create them, it can be difficult.

2 Likes

Not an anti vaxxer but couldn’t help it…
57xg7e

19 Likes
1 Like

Bingo. I owe him a solid for the Charge Up NJ heads up, so trying to fix that.

I’m a web designer and my niche is search engine optimization. As a proof of concept, I create sites that get #1 and #2 in Google out of 60 million results just every few months to see if I’m rusty.

If I have my way, in the next 90 days he’s gonna dominate every town in NJ for [town] lease broker , and eventually [town] auto lease with a killer site to boot.

2 Likes

So ah…what would it take to convince Aronchi to move to NorCal? We need the skillset over here, man.

Since getting my shot, I can feel an incoming call before it rings on the phone. 5g microchip is really fast

12 Likes