DETROIT (AP) - Tumbling sales of Fiat Chrysler's main midsize car have driven the company to indefinitely lay off 1,300 employees at a Detroit-area factory.
Workers on the second shift at Fiat Chrysler's assembly plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, will be furloughed starting July 5 as the slow-selling Chrysler 200 has started to stack up on dealer lots.
Sales of the cars were down 61 percent through March, and inventory grew to a 150-day supply, according to Ward's Automotive. Automakers consider 60 days to be optimal to give dealers enough of a selection for customers. Fiat Chrysler sold only 7,500 of the cars last month, less than half the number it sold a year ago.
It's the company's first indefinite layoff since 2009, when demand for cars and trucks dropped coming out of the Great Recession, and it's caused in part by U.S. buyers shifting from cars to SUVs of all sizes. Midsize cars, which have been particularly hard hit by the shift, saw sales fall 3.5 percent for the first three months of the year.
But the 200 had other problems including poor reviews due to unresponsive handling, a rough-shifting transmission and a four-cylinder base engine that didn't have enough power.