Mississippi Auto Shops Struggle to Obtain Parts

Feb. 6, 2023

Several auto shops in the Jackson metro area have been struggling to obtain parts to repair vehicles, with reports of it taking weeks and even months for a variety of different parts to arrive.

Feb. 6, 2023–Supply chain issues have been plaguing several different industries, but recently auto repair shops in the Jackson metro area have been having an especially hard time obtaining parts for vehicles, WTOK-TV reports.

Technicians in the area have been struggling to have parts come in, saying that most shipments have been taking weeks and even months to arrive, causing a disruption in business.

“It could be just a little bracket that you need (that) might take two-three weeks,” Bolden Body Shop technician Gregory Holliday said. 

Josh Malone, a technician with Freeman’s Auto Repair, said that it typically doesn’t matter what type of parts are being ordered; whether it will arrive in a timely manner has been hit-or-miss.

“You can’t really pin it down to one specific type of part or one specific type of vehicle,” Malone said. “It just comes and goes.”

The consensus among technicians in the area is that obtaining parts directly from manufacturers has been more of a struggle than finding aftermarket parts. 

Shops have had to push appointments out far enough in advance to assure parts will arrive in time.

“We had to turn work away today and push it out to a week or a month or two weeks down the road,” Malone said. “If we could have got the stuff at that point in time, you know, it would be done and (we’d be) moving on to brighter, greener pastures.”