A 140-day supply of Ions on retailer lots will force Saturn to halt production of the car for at least one week beginning October 27th. A 60-day supply of cars is considered normal. Sales of the Ion have falled to stabalize, despite a variety of incentives being offered to customers. The Ion's September sales were 35% lower than sales in August. The Detroit Free Press reports that "Neon sales, by comparison, rose 9 percent from August to September."

If retailer inventory doesn't improve this week, GM is reportedly considering idling production of the sedan and quad coupe a second week in early November. More incentives could also be on the way. "When you see like a 140-day supply of a vehicle that tells you it's suffering in the marketplace, which is really bad news considering they only launched the Ion in the last year," Mike Wall, analyst for CSM Worldwide, an auto sales and production firm told the newspaper. "When you hit triple digits, you get concerned about the vehicle. I'm sure heavier incentives or downtime are coming."

Production of the Vue sport-utility will not be affected by the changes to the Ion's production schedule.

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Source: Detroit Free Press