4WD’s wait lists grow across the Sunshine Coast

A Sunshine Coast car salesman has revealed how to jump the queue as wait lists for 4WD’s continue to grow with demand outstripping supply.

Anyone wanting a 4WD will have to wait with demand outweighing supply. Picutre: Tourism Events Queensland/Jesse Lindemann

Four-wheel drives are thin on the ground across the Sunshine Coast with extended wait lists because of supply issues, but car dealers say there are ways to jump the queue.

Pacific Motor Group Noosaville salesman Steven Latter says the wait for cars is at least a year and it’s not getting any shorter.

“All the new cars that are coming into Australia are sold,” Mr Latter said.

“If we had 50 cars rock up today we could have them all out by this afternoon.”

Car sales data released in January by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries shows Queensland’s automotive industry delivered 18,766 vehicles which is a 14.5 per cent increase on the same period in 2022.

The data also shows the consumer preference for larger vehicles has continued.

Toyota led the charge for the highest number of car sales in 2022, with four of their models in the top ten for the year and the Toyota HiLux topping the list.

Toyota HiLux owner Jonas Gehrmann says he recently bought his car because “it can go lots of places and is a fantastic work car”.

“It can pull big loads and it’s compact and pretty good on fuel too,” Mr Gehrmann said.

“I just love Toyota, they’re so reliable and you can get parts for it.”

Drivers are increasingly snapping up 4WDs so they can experience moments like this at Rainbow Beach. Picture: Mark Fitz

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The Toyota LandCruiser 70 series has also proven popular and “due to supply and demand factors” the company announced a “pause in order-taking” in July last year.

“The Toyota team has been working diligently to deliver a record number of vehicles,” Toyota Australia’s vice president sales, marketing and franchise operations Sean Hanley said.

“At the same time, strong demand and industry-wide supply challenges globally mean we simply cannot fulfil orders more quickly.”

Mr Latter says the backlog of people wanting 4WD’s started building mid-2020 and there is now no floor stock available.

“Before Covid you could walk in and the dealers would have heaps of cars in stock, people would say ‘I’ll have that one’,” Mr Latter said.

“Now there is a very long wait list.”

Mr Latter says one way to skip the queue is for someone to pull out of the list because they don’t want to wait.

“Whoever is next in line that wants that exact car, we ring them and say ‘look this is coming in next month, we’ve just had a customer pull out of the deal, do you want to jump on this car’?’”

He also said they have late models on offer at times.

“Sometimes a second hand one comes in, but they normally run out the door pretty quick as well,” Mr Latter said.

Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries public affairs manager Doug Wyllie said 2022 was the first year the automotive market was dictated to by supply.

“2022 was a pretty tough year for the new car market, in terms of manufacturing … due to Covid and also the war in Ukraine,” Mr Wyllie said.

“We are still dealing with shipping line congestion and delays with biosecurity cleaning.”