Return of the sales bank

With sales falling faster than Chrysler has been able to cut production, the sales bank has apparently been brought back, at least temporarily. According to Jim Press, as quoted by Automotive News, there are 12,000 units of “unassigned inventory” – vehicles produced without an order from dealers. Many of these may be Durangos and Aspens produced by the Newark, Delaware plant, which reportedly closes at the end of the week; the plant is the sole source of these vehicles, including hybrid versions. 

Chrysler is predicting 74,000 retail sales in December 2008 and just 55,000 retail sales in January 2009.

Update: the vehicles were, according to Jim Press, mainly ordered but not delivered to fleet buyers and dealers. See the followup story by Bill Cawthon (12/16/08 for details.)