These trucks are made in the Wentzville, MO plant. The trucks rely on parts from outside the plant, of course. The Duramax comes from Thailand for example, but GM is a world leader in supply chain management. This week GM reported, "GM inventories are disciplined, and the company expects to operate with about a 70 days’ supply throughout the year in most months, with some months higher or lower." And the company also reported that "Ten Chevrolet models – Silverado, Suburban, Tahoe, Colorado, Camaro, Impala, Malibu, Cruze, Sonic, and Traverse – grew retail market share in their respective segments." While it may be true that Colorado grew market share while dropping significantly in sales, it seems a little odd to parse it that way and faked us out in the sense that we assumed production was normal for the period.
Looking deeper after being tipped off by a Colorado fan, we asked the Wentzville plant spokesperson if the plant had been idle for longer than the industry's typical holiday shutdown. The response cleared some things up. Darin Copeland, Plant Communications Mgr. at GM's Wentzville Assembly and Stamping plant, told GM-trucks.com today, "As you know the Colorado has been a strong seller since its introduction so during the first two weeks of January we took the opportunity for an extended holiday shut down period to make plant throughput improvements that will increase our line rates to make more trucks for our customers down the road."
The upshot of this is that the dip in sales last month were most likely due to Colorado and Canyon production line upgrades. Even better news is that the changes may give the trucks a bit of a bump in production. Coupled with a decline in GM's commercial fleet business, this could mean more trucks for private buyers on dealer lots starting this month.
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