GM to Boost Crossover Production with Manual Body Shops

General Motors is experiencing an impressive sales boost in its domestic market, as crossover deliveries have grown so much that the former bankrupt automaker is not able to cope with local demand. Since the company struggles to honor all orders and setting up a new automated body shop would take around 20 months and more than $100 million, General Motors would establish some manual lines in the next three months.

Or at least, this is the estimated time for setting up a manual body shop, the Detroit Free Press reported citing a source familiar with the matter. The Spring Hill, Tennessee plant is currently favorite to get the new line but other sources close to the matter suggested that GM is yet to make a final decision.

General Motors sold a total of 9,531 Equinox units in January, which represents an increase of 76 percent as compared to the same month of the previous year. At the end of the last month, GM had an US inventory of 390,000 vehicles but to honor all orders, the company would have need around 450,000 units, Susan Docherty, GM vice president for sales, said in a statement.

"There are some key places where we think that we're just too light right now," she said.

GM dealers admit that sales are going surprisingly well in the crossover class and praise the vehicles' design, gas mileage and price, three of the main appealing attributes, as they said.

"We're selling about 25 a month. ... We could probably sell 50," Jim Bechtell, co-owner of Somerset Buick GMC in Troy, told the source.