Ford's truck plant is the latest factory to be hit by strikes — and could mean headaches if you're in the market for a pickup

• The United Auto Workers union is on strike.
• Certain buyers beware — the return of deals and inventory will soon vanish.
• It's unclear how long targeted work stoppages may last.

Targeted strikes by the United Auto Workers union have hit Ford's pickup truck factory in Kentucky — a bad sign for truck buyers.

Anyone shopping for a domestic brand is likely to see car discounts and deals dry up soon, and if the strikes go on long enough, inventory issues not unlike what they saw during the pandemic. It's a tough pill to swallow for Ford, GM, or Stellantis shoppers who only started to see deals and availability come back over the summer.

But auto industry experts have told Insider that strikes are likely to throw the market back into disarray.

Perhaps the biggest move yet came Wednesday night when the UAW unexpectedly shut down Ford's highly profitable F-Series pickup truck factory in Kentucky. This is the first truck assembly plant hit by the strike so far, and the biggest escalation in the ever-expanding 4-week strike.

This is a unique strike for the UAW, which normally picks a single company for a strike rather than all three at once. That means the impact of this year's historic work stoppage is likely to be broader than in the past, even with the targeted approach UAW President Shawn Fain has used.

No more deals

Ford, GM, and Jeep-maker Stellantis have led the way on the return of car deals after years of turbulence in the car market. But before actual vehicle availability dries up, car manufacturers are going to pull back on purchase incentive programs.

And while inventory for these brands has started to build back up, it's likely that dealers will have to stockpile and hold supply close to their chests while the UAW moves its work stoppages from factory to factory — but there will be nuances by each brand.

Stellantis, for example, had the most days' supply of inventory at the end of August, with 74 days, according to a Deutsche Bank note. Meanwhile, Ford was sitting on 64 days and GM, 50 days.

"The impact of the strike will be quite different depending on the manufacturer and even depending on the vehicle in terms of what consumers will see," Pat Ryan, CEO of car-shopping resource CoPilot, told Insider.

Want a big car? You're out of luck

More specifically, factories building high-price pickup trucks and SUVs will be hardest-hit by work stoppages, creating an availability issue for these already sought-after models and impacting buyers looking for larger vehicles.

"Some of their most popular models, which are also the ones that they and their dealers make their biggest profits on, like the GMC Yukon, are actually still in relatively short supply," Ryan added. "You're going to see for those popular models, consumers paying sticker plus — that premium over sticker."

The UAW could also target more engine and transmission factories, which supply multiple assembly lines and could take out more vehicles at once, impacting shoppers even looking for something other than a pickup or SUV.

Those actions on dealer lots — sending prices back up, intentionally limiting supply, and having fewer and fewer vehicles incoming — may push some domestic buyers to foreign brands, or it may simply delay some purchases, industry experts have said.

But don't plan on easy repairs, either

One might suggest that car owners simply hold onto their vehicles for longer (like they have been doing since the start of COVID). But car repairs to keep those older vehicles on the road will get more difficult under a labor stoppage.

During the UAW-GM strike in 2019, the first hit to consumers came in the form of parts availability. Since many parts are made-to-order for repairs, those orders were immediately cut off when workers at GM walked off the job.

The same is likely to happen this time around.

Even simple repairs will likely come with long wait times or higher prices as these parts are harder to come by. The longer any work stoppage drags on, the more likely that non-UAW represented parts suppliers will also have to shutter some facilities, as they did during the last strike in 2019.