The entire world is in a bit of a mess right now, and due to reasons that we don’t need to mention any more (the obvious one being the chip shortage), carmakers worldwide have also been struggling to make new cars. We Malaysians think we have it bad with a six-month wait time for the Proton X50, but wait until you hear about our poor friends in Japan.
According to a report by Automotive News, the demand for the Lexus LX in Japan has been so overwhelming that customers are now expected to wait up to 48 months just to get their hands on the behemoth SUV. Yes – that’s four whole years.
In a bid to contain the issue and cut down the backlog, Lexus has already stopped taking orders for the LX in its domestic market. But even then, the company is still concerned cars ordered today won’t even arrive in their customer’s driveway before the next model update rolls about.
And that’s not the only model in Lexus’ stable that’s experiencing long wait times. The smaller all-new NX, which made its debut last year, is also being forced to close its order books in Japan, as the wait list have apparently also been backed up for about 12 months.
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“LX is very popular not only in Japan but also around the world, and we have received orders that greatly exceed our production capacity,” reads the apology note on Lexus’ Japanese website, as translated by Automotive News.
Over the past two years, Lexus’ parent company Toyota has had to repeatedly shut down production at some of its facilities in Japan due to the lack of necessary components – a problem which started with just silicon chips, but has since spiralled to also include other parts, due to supply constraints caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Here in Malaysia, both Perodua and Proton have also cited parts supply issue as the main culprit behind the long wait times for their cars. It’s not pleasant to wait such an extended period to get your dream car, but perhaps we should really count our blessings that it’s only six months, especially in this troubled times.
