New problem for automakers: Not enough cars

Full Story at msnbc.com

NEW YORK – After a lot of heartbreak, the nation’s automakers aren’t looking to commit.

They’re taking small, tentative steps to raise production to meet the revived demand for new cars and trucks sparked by Cash for Clunkers. Carmakers are offering overtime or Saturday shifts at slack plants, but aren’t willing to go as far as opening shuttered factories, concerned that demand may ebb when the program ends.

It typically takes a month for factories to ramp up for a full-fledged sales revival, and automakers worry current levels of demand won’t last that long. Sales are usually dry in the early fall anyway, when the next model-year’s vehicles hit dealer lots and summer clearance sales end.