September 27, 2019—Consumers may soon feel the effects of the UAW strike against General Motors, as car dealers are finding it difficult to get parts needed for repairs, reports the Detroit Free Press.
"The parts impact is greater for us than the vehicle inventory impact is at the moment," said John Pitre, COO for Motor City Buick GMC in Bakersfield, Calif. "If you need an outside door handle for a 2018 GMC Sierra pickup, there’s only one place to get it, and they’re closed.”
GM says it has put in a process to alleviate the limited parts impact on consumers, which will include shipping parts directly from suppliers to dealers. GM will also offer customers free transportation if they must wait for service in cases of warranty or recall work.
“The key element here is duration. The longer [the strike] lasts, the more supplier production is affected,” Senior Economist and Research Advisor for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Thomas Klier, said.
However, he noted that the impact on most companies should be temporary.
