Ottawa man waiting nearly a year for car to be fixed gets answers

An Ottawa man who has been waiting nearly a year for his car to be fixed at Camco Acura, is finally getting the answers he's been looking for.

CTV News Ottawa first talked to Joshua Kim on Sunday, when he told us his car has been in the shop since last September.

His 2016 Acura TLX was damaged during a storm when flooding caused problems with his airbags.

His insurance provider covered the cost of a rental car for the first couple of months, but that ran out in November.

Kim says he was denied a rental vehicle through Acura in October, but after the story aired, he says, he was approved the next day.

"It's a lot of mixed emotions in the sense that this should have happened when I first came in, or after the first three or four months, or when I first reached out," said Kim.

Acura says the parts needed to fix his vehicle, including a wiring harness have been hard to get.

But on Tuesday, Kim says he received another phone call, saying the part would be in the first week of August.

"It raises an eyebrow when the interview aired on Sunday, it took one day to get me into a rental and then Tuesday they told me that the wiring harness that I’ve been waiting for, for 10 months, is magically here," said Kim.

In a statement to CTV News, Acura says, "an updated timeline for his vehicle was presented and he was pleased with the resolution."

While automotive experts say many of the shortages caused by the pandemic have cleared up, natural disasters, a second lock-down in China and the war in Ukraine are still causing delays for certain parts, including wiring harnesses.

"While most automakers and suppliers have been able to nail living in the new normal if you will, suddenly they're faced with the crisis of logistical delays where their parts are there, it's just on a ship somewhere," said Akshay Baliga, senior vice-president with AlixPartners.

"One of the major areas that were supplying wiring harnesses was Ukraine, and we know what is happening with the conflict in that region. That ended up disrupting the entire supply chain as a whole as well."

As for Kim, he still doesn't have an exact date for when his car will be repaired, he's just happy he won’t have to wait for the bus anytime soon.