General Motors dealers are beginning to run low on inventory of the automaker’s most popular models following the two-month-long shutdown of its North American assembly plants.
Automotive sales in the U.S. are beginning to rebound in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many dealers seeing a steady flow of customers from online leads. Unfortunately for automakers like GM, though, vehicle assembly plants only recently came back online, causing demand to outstrip supply in recent weeks. The Detroit Free Press spoke to several dealers who reported having very low inventory of some of General Motors’ more popular vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Suburban and Chevrolet Equinox.
Gordon Stewart, who owns two separate Chevrolet dealerships, told The Free Press that the spring and early summer months are his busiest time of year, which could make it difficult for to him to build a strong inventory back up in the coming weeks.
“We’ve got 300 vehicles in stock in Detroit and normally we have 700 or 800,” Stewart said. “This is the peak selling season. It’s going to be a long time before we can restock to meet the pent-up demand.”
“With the factories shut down, it’s just devastating,” he added.
It’s not just pickup trucks, either. The automaker’s crossover models are also flying off the lots and are experiencing a similar glut of inventory.
“The pickup situation, all of it, including GMCs,” Brian Carroll, owner of Michigan dealer group Brian Carroll Automotive Group, told The Free Press. “We’re also having a tough time with the Chevy Blazer.”
General Motors said previously that it would ramp up production at its plants as quickly as possible in order to meet demand and help its dealers build up an adequate vehicle inventory. The automaker is planning to be back up and running at full capacity before the end of the month, but is also being cautious not to flood the market with vehicles that may not sell in a struggling economy.
“Not every facility will ramp up as fast as possible,” Philip Kienle, GM’s vice president of North American manufacturing, said last month. “Ideally, in a perfect world, by around June 15th, all of our facilities would be operating at their original capacity. But, again, I just give the caveat: market demand. We’re not going to override market demand.”
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Comments
They are not running low on inventory here in southern Connecticut! They’re running out of places to put all the the new cars they have!
Same here both the Chevy and GMC dealers in my area look pretty well stocked . Although I’m not denying the lack of production, but I think some dealers just prefer seeing the lot full to draw in traffic.
After driving past my local usually-very-large-volume Chevy dealer’s lot yesterday, I was shocked at the nearly empty lot due to lack of inventory. Something has to give with this pandemic craziness, and soon.
I have been looking for an LTZ for two weeks with no luck at all. No inventory matching what I’m looking for in a 200 mile radius of Columbus, Ohio
If the Trump civil war continues, there will be plenty of production needed to replace all those burning cars…😂🤣
I’m at a large Chevy store in the Detroit area, and where we normally have 200+ Silverado’s in at anytime we are down to less than 10. Good luck finding something for the next few months it’s gonna be rough on all of us.
In my area SoCal, lots of inventory and lots of unemployed that are breaking down dealership doors just to get to those deferred payments and that 0% loan for the next 72 unpredictable months. Really, I take this article with a really big grain of salt. Also I hope the factories are tooling up for the 2021’s, which are due out in about 4 months and not wasting their time with the 2020’s.
I can’t find an AT4 with in 250 miles of me.
I still have not heard any thing about A chivy avalanch, when will you start with it.
If only there was a 90% empty GM plant that could build both trucks and SUVs under one roof 🤔 #GMOshawaOperations
Inventory at our Chevrolet dealership.
Corvette 0
Spark 0
Malibu 1
Trailblazer 0
Sonic 2
Silverado 1- lifted
Tahoe 1 lifted
Colorado 5
Suburban 1
Equinox 32
Trax 5
Large dealership in central PA usually stocks around 400 Silverado 1500s. I saw last weeek that they were down to about 120.
We are back to full production in Fort Wayne home of the Silverado and Sierra 1500. Plus 2 Saturday’s in june
Good deal.
Keep ’em rolling out.