The Cash for Clunkers program is making some gas-sipping cars so scarce that local new-car dealers are scrounging for more to sell and automakers are ramping up production.
Regionally, Ford Motor Co. has added shifts at its Fusion plant in Hermosillo, Sonora.
Nationally, General Motors Co. announced Tuesday that it was boosting production by 60,000 vehicles in the third and fourth quarters as sales rise due to the Cash for Clunkers incentives and a recovery in the U.S. market. About 1,350 laid-off workers will be recalled, while 10,000 more will get a shot at overtime pay.
Toyota's Corolla and Ford's Focus have alternately led the list of the Top 10 most popular cars in the Car Allowance Rebate Program, aka Cash for Clunkers. Honda's Civic, Toyota's Prius and the Ford Escape also have been in high demand.
"Yaris, Prius, Corollas — we are running out of them," said Bob Rockov, general manager of Desert Toyota-Scion, 7150 E. 22nd St.
People are also reading…
"Things are good. The program has helped us out," Rockov said Tuesday. "We've done 92("clunker" deals) so far. Inventory has stopped us. We're limited on everything. We're running out. The allocations come. The inventory drops every day. By the time they ramp up production, it will be over. I'm shocked it's still going on."
Local Ford and Chrysler dealers reported being out or nearly out of their cars with the best gas mileage two weeks ago.
It's certainly been good news for Tucson multi-brand dealer Jim Click, who has local Ford, Hyundai and Dodge stores, all with one or more Top 10 Cash for Clunkers models.
"In Tucson, we probably have a dozen (Ford) Focuses and probably a dozen or two of the Fusions," said Sam Khayat, chief operating officer for the Jim Click Automotive Group in Tucson.
"About a week to 10 days ago, we got low on everything," Khayat said. "We're not used to that; the Focuses are our bread and butter."
Khayat said Click is working to get cars wherever it can, including some from dealers that went out of business before Cash for Clunkers.
"We are on pace to double our sales from the previous eight or nine months, just in August," Khayat said.
He said 400 cars are sitting on Click lots around Tucson waiting for approval from the federal officials, who will let the dealers know they will get paid and it's safe to kill the trade-ins' engines and auction off their bodies to approved recyclers.
The Ford Fusion already was a hot item when Cash for Clunkers took off last month, Click General Manager Ahmad Koussa said.
The Fusion — a slightly larger car — is made in Ford's Hermosillo plant and was not far behind the Top 10.
The Hermosillo plant — which also makes two other cars on the same platform as the Ford Fusion, the Mercury Milan and the Lincoln MKZ — closed in mid-December when the U.S. car market was dead.
It's now stamping out as many cars as it can and even adding shifts, said Ford's U.S. sales analyst, George Pipas.
Pipas said the Hermosillo plant was already near maximum output because of the popularity of the Fusion.
Cash for Clunkers may even have a bit of extra money in it for Southern Arizonans who didn't participate.
Some raw materials and automobile components going to the Hermosillo Ford plant are shipped through Tucson, as are the finished cars bound for U.S. dealers, said Al Altuna, a freight planner with the Pima Association of Governments.
He said roll steel, which is later stamped into body panels, is shipped through Tucson by rail.
Pacer Stack Train, an intermodal carrier, sends auto parts south from Tucson across the border and on to Hermosillo, Altuna said.
"There's not a huge impact here. . . . It creates some work for Union Pacific (railroad) here," he said.
There's no doubt, Altuna added, that Hermosillo Ford employees "come up here and spend money."
Top 10 cars purchased in Cash for Clunkers program
1. Ford Focus
2. Toyota Corolla
3. Honda Civic
4. Toyota Prius
5. Toyota Camry
6. Ford Escape FWD
7. Hyundai Elantra
8. Dodge Caliber
9. Honda Fit
10. Chevrolet Cobalt
Source: The Associated Press