CINCINNATI — Getting a repair done to your car now-a-days may take longer than you expect. That’s because some mechanics are having a hard time getting the parts they need ordered in a timely manner. And they believe it might have something to do with the UAW strike.
Timon’s Car Care in Cincinnati has been dealing with an auto parts shortage for a while now.
Jim Timon recently ordered an airbag from Detroit that took a month to be delivered. And an air conditioner for a General Motors vehicle took even longer to get there.
“Been waiting for one of those up until two months ago,” said Timon. “Was over 13 months for that to be in production again.”
He said anti-lock brakes for GM and Chevrolet cars are completely out of stock- leaving customers in limbo until they’re available.
“Customers shouldn’t actually be driving them, but they don’t have a choice,” he said. “If you’ve got to wait six or seven months for the part in this case that’s bigger trucks that are having a problem and you know, they shouldn’t be on the road basically.”
Timon’s shop is completely packed with cars that he’s not sure when he’ll be able to fix. And it’s a cause for concern not only for him, but his customers as well.
“If they if they’ve got extra cars, you know, I suggest just leaving it at that point, you know,” he said. “But they’re in the instance where three weeks is fine, four weeks is fine. But now you’re tying up every part of the shop that I’ve got.”
But Timon’s Car Care isn’t the only auto shop dealing with the shortage.
This is a problem that Wayne State University Professor Jeff Rightner said is happening across the country.
“The supply chain before this, with the pandemic, with the chip shortages and all of that, was very fragile to begin with,” said Rightner. “And now you add on what is, I think 35 days now, that just kind of exacerbated the problem.”
And he said it’s a problem that is impacting smaller mechanic shops like Timon’s more than the bigger dealerships.
“They can get the parts from the distribution, warehouses and so forth,” he said. “Where your garage mechanic, your local gas station or wherever, they sometimes have a harder, problem getting the GM parts or those type of parts out of the distribution hubs.”
Rightner said even when the strike comes to an end, it could take weeks before we start to see fewer shortages. Despite the challenge, it’s something Timon said he’ll try his best to work through.
“Been doing it 60 years and I’ve never seen it to this point,” he said. “And with everything else is going on in the world here now, you never know. So we’ll see.”
