Even if there is higher than expected demand, don't expect them to suddenly start cranking them out. There is a lot that goes into manufacturing a vehicle. You see, they plan out how many they'd like to build beforehand. Then they have to get all the parts suppliers in line to build that pre-determined number of vehicles. Just because the plant has sufficient capacity to build more doesn't mean they can. It all depends on the parts suppliers, if they are able to make 30,000 units of a part when initially they were told they were only going to have to produce 20,000 of them. Remember, it only takes a shortage of ONE part to make it so they can't build more than they initially expected. It can take a heck of a long time to add additional capacity to manufacture a part. Take the Duramax Diesel in the GM Pickups. That engine has been out since fall of 2000 and they STILL don't have enough capacity to meet the demand of that engine. They still can't make enough to put one in every truck they build. It varies, but right now they only have 1 engine for every 2 Crew Cab trucks built.
As for the cancellation of the Chevy Prism: They redesigned the car it was based off of (Toyota Corolla) in '03 and gave Pontiac the Vibe (Corolla based). I don't think the Prism really fit into the Chevy lineup of cars anyway, with the new Aveo and Cobalt on the way. They didn't need it anymore. Had nothing to do with not enough service work for dealers. Absolutely not. Cars aren't designed so they'll break later on so the dealers will have something to do in their service department. Their goal is to create a very reliable vehicle so people will have a good experience with it and want to buy another one of the same brand later on. Nobody wins by building cars to consistenly break down.
