GM Halts Production Of Cars at Five Plants - Too Much Inventory

[Gorehamj]

John Goreham
Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com
12-27-2016

Somber news this week from GM. GM is temporarily closing five manufacturing plants' lines over this holiday period to let inventories burn off. The Detroit News reports that some car models have risen to as much 105 days of inventory. The Camaro is presently at a six-month inventory level. Other cars that a need to be out of production for a period include the Corvette, Cruze, Cadillac ATS and CTS.

 

Throughout the year, as GM announced enthusiastic sales results, GM-Trucks.com has tried to look deeper and report what the car sales at GM were doing. Trucks did well, and some crossovers and SUVs performed very well, while others did not. Consistently, the cars at GM seemed to underperform compared to the competition.

 

The declining market for GM cars is not just in the U.S. Opel has closed its Bochum Germany plant and Holden in Austrailia announced it will close its Victoria and South Austrailia plants this month. The plants will operate through 2018, after which, Holden will be an all-import brand.

[Back in a Bowtie]

discount me a nice new camaro. id be all over it

[Driver72]

This isn't a surprise to me. Months ago already when I drove by the Chevy lots I saw brand new Camaro's with "$8,000 off MSRP" signs on them and "$10,000 off MSRP" signs on Corvettes.

When I went into the dealership to order my 2017 Chevy SS sedan, they had a new Z06 on the showroom floor with $19,000 off the MSRP.

[Daryl Z71]

If a V8 Camaro didn't cost over $40k they'd probably sell more of them. Why pay that for a car when you can have a pickup?

[newdude]

There are Camaro's out there with some good coin off if you can find a 2016. We had two we sold back in November for near $10k off MSRP.

[Daryl Z71]

There are Camaro's out there with some good coin off if you can find a 2016. We had two we sold back in November for near $10k off MSRP.

Now that wouldn't be a bad deal.

[GPGuy]

I don't know about the foreign GM plants but I think the media is trying to make a bigger story out of this then it really is. Most GM plants shudder production during Christmas unless they are really behind on something.

[truckofwinandawesome]

I don't know about the foreign GM plants but I think the media is trying to make a bigger story out of this then it really is. Most GM plants shudder production during Christmas unless they are really behind on something.

 

yup, they use the time to catch up on plant maintenance, as well as sometimes tool up for either a new model, or next model year for an existing model if it has any significant changes.

[Nwatson99]

I don't know about the foreign GM plants but I think the media is trying to make a bigger story out of this then it really is. Most GM plants shudder production during Christmas unless they are really behind on something.

Exactly it is called Winter Shut Down and I am here in the middle of it at my job.

This time of year the plants revamp, change, modify, or delete processes as well as repair worn out parts that could cause production down time.

[truckofwinandawesome]

Exactly it is called Winter Shut Down and I am here in the middle of it at my job.

This time of year the plants revamp, change, modify, or delete processes as well as repair worn out parts that could cause production down time.

yeah, having a tool or robot break right in the middle of production is probably no fun; and as you said, someone on the line might have suggested a faster, cheaper, or easier way of doing something in production, which saves the company time and money.

[Nargg]

Why pay that for a car when you can have a pickup?

 

Nobody said this was an "either/or" game When there is a will, there is a way...

[Daryl Z71]

 

Nobody said this was an "either/or" game When there is a will, there is a way...

True, just how I thought when I was considering a Camaro or Silverado back in 2008.

[redwngr]

 

Nobody said this was an "either/or" game When there is a will, there is a way...

Different tools for different jobs!

 

Sometimes there needs to be more than one tool in the kit.

[GPGuy]

The killer combo would be to have one of each.

[Daryl Z71]

The killer combo would be to have one of each.

I did at one point in time. 2005 Silverado and 1994 Z28.