The Chrysler Group said Monday that it had not yet accounted for tens of thousands of cars in its inventory numbers, which are already considered high by industry standards.
Chrysler said it had routinely excluded these vehicles, worth billions of dollars, from its tally of unsold cars and trucks because they had not yet been assigned to a specific dealer or ordered by a customer.
While there are no requirements for how automakers report their inventories, the disclosure has frustrated competitors who say they are being more forthright about their struggles. Chrysler says the practice is common, but other automakers say they abandoned it decades ago, after the oil shortages of the 1970’s caused inventories to bloat quickly.
A Chrysler spokesman, Kevin McCormick, said about 50,000 vehicles were currently unassigned and therefore not included in Chrysler’s inventory figures, adding that the number had been as high as 100,000 this summer.
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