It’s frustrating, for sure. Your car had a crash or damage and when you look for the parts to repair it, the answer is not what you expected: “We already ordered it, it should arrive in three or four weeks.” It is painful, it is so bad to be in that situation, that courage often wins out over reason and, we already know, Who is angry loses. The most sensible thing in this -and in all- cases is to cool your head and look for alternatives. But it is equally important to understand why the distributor or the brand does not have that auto part that is so important to us.
A car today is made up of around 30,000 parts and, by simple logic, a dealer can’t keep all of them in stock in their warehouse. Because of this, brands and distributors establish priorities. Number one is the preventive maintenance parts, that is, those that are needed to carry out the scheduled services, such as oils, filters, etc. Then there are the natural wear parts such as brake pads, spark plugs and so on. Right after there are the collision parts, such as fenders, headlights, skulls, wheels, among others. In some countries, such as Mexico for example, parts that are stolen also enter this level of priority. with some frequency as rear view mirrors, grills, headlights, skulls, frames. Even computers are already, in certain cases, subject to replacement much more frequently than they should be due to theft. In the United States, catalytic converter theft is a growing problem today.
With the exception of the last two examples, the rest mentioned so far must be in inventory at a distributor or at least in the brand’s warehouse in the country or one closer, such as the neighbor to the north.
the damn pandemic
When I mention collision parts, I mean not so serious blows, because when they go beyond that and you already require parts like the dashboard or a seat, those will most likely have to be ordered directly from the manufacturer, whether it is in Europe, Japan or China. . And there comes a serious problem: logistics.
It must be remembered that in 2020, the world came to a complete stop for at least two months. Everything that was not considered essential, such as food, health and public transport, stopped. Once he was back in business, that return wasn’t exactly normal or smooth. A very good part of the problem was due to the policy adopted by the Chinese government of “zero Covid”, which kept closed, with some small productive “windows”, entire cities. The global industry, not just the automotive industry, was affected and remains so to this day. There are not enough ships or containers in the world to meet the demand. And those that exist work with a price five or six times higher than before.
To this we must add that when a new vehicle is launched in a market, it needs time to see its resistance to local conditions, so that the brand knows whether or not there are parts that fail here more frequently than in other markets, mainly the originally. If there is one or more such parts, those are going to be harder to get. In Mexico, the massive entry of Chinese brands represents a huge challenge. MG, for example, experienced the perfect storm, a bit of a victim of its own success, since neither they nor anyone else expected such a massive and rapid acceptance that they received. Then, its supplier plant was closed by the Chinese government for a long time, which delayed the opening of its spare parts warehouse for this year. All other new brands will inevitably go through similar but less severe issues, because China already allows its factories to run.
In Mexico there are also logistics problems. There are not enough godmothers to transport the cars. The Kansas Railroad, which runs from Lázaro Cárdenas to the US and Canada, is at its maximum capacity. There are not enough trucks or drivers and the insecurity on the roads means that the drivers who are still working do not want to do it at night, making the operation less efficient.
Of course, none of this is going to make us feel better if a part is missing from our car, especially if it is one that does not allow it to circulate or compromises its safety, but it is the reality we live in today and, unfortunately, there is no forecast that things , at least as far as national deficiencies are concerned, are resolved.
