Marcus Norton, from Norton Motor Group, said the timeframe for new cars varied from model to model.

The wait is due to a shortage of microchips and semiconductors, caused by a huge increase of people wanting to purchase a new car.

"It really does depend on the product but minimum timeframe is about 10 weeks," he said.

"I don't think it will improve throughout 2022, not the way it's looking at the minute. We're going to get to the start of 2022 and even if supply picks up the demand at the moment is by far outstripping supply.

"It might bring the supply line down from nine months to four months but it's still not going to bring it down to 'there's your car tomorrow.'

"I've never seen anything like this in my time. I don't know anyone in the industry that has. It's pretty much every brand, it doesn't matter which brand you are."

Mr Norton said mostly customers understood the reasons for the delays with wait times being felt across a variety of industries.

"It's provided some pretty tricky conversations along the way," he said.

"But we've been very lucky in our industry that we've been able to continue to trade through COVID. In the main most people have now got their head around it because this has been around for a while now and look we're not the only industry experiencing these delays."

Mr Norton said the delay was primarily due to a shortage in semiconductors or microchips.

Steve Callaghan from Callaghan Motors said wait times varied from one to six months depending on the make and the model.

"We're light on stock right across the board," he said. "Our caravan business is similar - people need to get in quickly."

Mr Callaghan said he also expected the delays to last well into 2022.

"Some people are lucky and they're flexible in colour and they might pick one up in stock but it just depends," he said.

He said Hyundai was best placed at the moment in terms of wait times, but there were delays with Mitsubishi, RAM, Suzuki and major delays with Mercedes Benz. He said COVID-19 had also meant there were delays in shipping and how the ports were operating under COVID rules.

"It's also other components with COVID more rampant around south-east Asia. Some factories aren't at full capacity so that slows down components," he said.

"This is unprecedented but we can't control it.

"At least the is demand there."