2021’s Car Chip Shortage Shows No Signs of Stopping Anytime Soon

It’s hard to trust car dealers, and if anyone who sells cars for a living is reading this, it’s difficult to blame folks when one of the most well-known idioms of this specific vocation is: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

So when word broke out of a chip shortage affecting the prices of used cars, every prospective car buyer let out an anguished groan, because negotiating the purchase of an automobile through a dealer was enough of a nightmare. And after the hellish year of commerce, folks want to know: When will used car prices finally drop?

The prices of some used cars are higher than others in the wake of the chip shortage.

It’s no secret that many auto manufacturers are making their most popular models “smarter” as time progresses. Microchips are being used for a litany of different functions, from gas consumption to transmission operation to, of course, governing a variety of other processes in a car.

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In early 2021, Ford reportedly hit a bunch of production issues as a result of the chip shortage that left customers with vehicles that couldn’t hit anywhere near their projected mpg estimates. Not exactly the kind of surprise you want to encounter after paying full price for a new car in a market that’s putting buyers through the wringer.

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Some models saw enormous percentage hikes in the used car segment, too. Like the Mercedes Benz G-Class. This overpriced German box of a car cost buyers some $160,000, aka the price of a small house. But economy cars have also seen massive increases.

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The Nissan LEAF, despite having an “insanely expensive” battery to replace and looking like the kind of electric car that would get swirlied if it was a student in car high school, now costs $6,370 more to buy on average.

America’s tiny economy darling, the Chevy Spark now costs peeps $4,467 more on average to purchase.

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The Lincoln Navigator, aka, Fancy Ford Expedition, is reportedly costing buyers 34.5 percent more to purchase ($16,532) and the Kia Soul is $3,973 more expensive to buy. Yikes.

There are a bunch of other factors to consider when purchasing a car, and if you really do need to buy a new one, it might be worth your while to travel to a location that’s far from where you live to help save you a few thousand dollars or have the car shipped to your home.

2021’s Car Chip Shortage Shows No Signs of Stopping Anytime Soon
Source: Maharo News