Leftlane reported in early May that General Motors was already keeping an eye on its inventory level of full-size trucks as they continued to sit on lots in the wake of higher gas prices.
Now, GM has confirmed that it will be idling two plants, the Flint assembly plant in Michigan and the Fort Wayne Assembly plant in Indiana. Both plants will be idled for two weeks starting the week of July 4, according to Tom Wickham, a GM spokesman speaking with Bloomberg.
When GM first began to more closely monitor truck inventories it had amassed some 275,000 pickups, 258,000 of which were full-size Silverado and Sierra pickups. Today, that number has grown to 288,000 units, which translates to a 110-day supply, nearly double the industry average of a 60-day supply.
GM also plans to use the time when the plants are being idled to make some changes to prepare for the switch to the 2012 model year pickups.
Despite the surplus of trucks, GM North America’s president, Mark Reuss, reiterated earlier this month that the automaker will stick to production cuts as opposed to price cuts to handle its inventory issues.
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1.’GM will idle…’ view
