Dealerships throughout the country are greatly impacted by the shortage of computer-chips in vehicle inventories.
Southeastern Wisconsin dealerships like Russ Darrow Honda feel the effect of the scarcity of the chips. The manufacturer no longer gives out two sets of keys as a result.
"Honda is only giving the customer one key instead of two keys because they can use the chip that they put in the remote for the key to build another vehicle," George Matthews, general manager of Russ Darrow Honda, said.
Although Matthews told TMJ4 that because Honda had excess inventory, their dealership does not feel the deep impact of the chip shortages, unlike the rest of the business.
The automobile industry uses computer chips in car production to assist the computers that run them, TMJ4 reported. These chips are needed for emission control.
They also control how fuel is injected into the car engine, including how the display on the dashboard works. Unfortunately, the increasing demand for personal and home electronics during the pandemic has limited the supply.
Car buyers are turning to used vehicles, which is driving the demand up. The average new car price was $37,200 in the first three months of 2021, according to J.D. Power, TMJ4 reported.
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