GM sales success calls for boosting output

DETROIT -- Shoppers are snapping up cars and trucks so quickly that General Motors Co. is boosting production for the rest of the year to keep up with demand driven by "cash for clunkers."

It's another sign that automakers believe consumers are returning to showrooms after a yearlong slump.

Ford Motor Co. last week moved to increase its output, and other automakers took similar action earlier this month. GM said yesterday that it would add 60,000 vehicles to its production schedule in the third and fourth quarters and bring back 1,350 laid-off workers. The company now plans to make 535,000 cars and trucks in July-September.

That would amount to a 35 percent increase from the depressed second quarter, while production in the final three months of the year will rise an additional 20 percent.

"Our dealers are clamoring for more vehicles in almost every segment," said Mark LaNeve, vice president of U.S. sales. "We're getting extremely short on a number of our products."

GM will add shifts to factories in Ingersoll, Ontario, and Lordstown, Ohio. The Ontario plant makes the brand-new Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain crossover vehicles, both of which get 32 miles per gallon on the highway. Lordstown makes the Chevrolet Cobalt small car.

Production also will be boosted at other North American factories, including those that make the Chevrolet HHR small wagon, the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickups, the Chevrolet Camaro muscle car, Buick LaCrosse sedan, and the Cadillac SRX and CTS Wagon.