We touched upon [3]the disappointing GM car sales number reported earlier, which were promptly blamed on snow in the winter in some part of the country, which supposedly also meant that California's ravenous car buyers didn't purchase vehicles due to drought or something. Either way, one thing is clear: there was a big drop in auto demand which was to be expected from an overextended consumer whose plight we have been following for years. However, where GM did surprise, is that despite its apparent realization of climatic conditions, the company decided to plough through with abnormal production levels and flooded its dealer network with inventory. So much inventory, in fact, that in January, GM's channel stuffing pipeline rose by another 42K cars (a quarter of total sales in January), increasing the stock of cars parked at dealer lots and collecting dust to 780K from 748K in December, the second highest ever!
[4]
Shown otherwise, post-reorg GM had a record 114 days supply in inventory, compared to "only" 81 at the end of the year.
[5]