Automakers and dealers daydream of selling new vehicles to order, of washing away all the inventory carrying costs onto their respective bottom lines by delivering vehicles to ready buyers as soon as they're driven off the truck.
But if the U.S. auto retailing market is ever going to migrate to those more profitable practices — instead of just temporarily stumbling through them as happened during the pandemic — both automakers and dealers are going to have to get exponentially better at customer communications and managing customer patience.
How do I know? Let me tell you the story of "No matter what."
Nine months ago, on Sept. 16, 2022, I placed an order with my local Ford dealership for a new Maverick Lariat hybrid pickup in Atlas Blue Metallic. I knew that I would be waiting months and months for delivery, given ongoing production constraints across the industry.
I was — and still am nine months later — completely OK with that.
My order…