Aug. 23, 2021—Repair shops in Spokane, Wash. are having trouble keeping up with work from customers looking to repair older cars in the midst of an industry-wide labor shortage, reports The Spokesman-Review.
The service delays come as a result of a current customer preference for keeping and fixing their older vehicles in an attempt to avoid the rising prices of new and used cars on the market today. A recent heat wave in the area also impacted batteries and cooling systems.
“We have lots of vehicles that are coming in that are fairly well aged,” Austin Adair, title service writer at Mechanics Pride Tire and Automotive told the outlet. “People are very willing to pay $500 or $1,000 and are even putting new engines in to alleviate getting a new car payment and debt they don’t need.”
