USA Today reports automakers are pushing factories and workers to the limit to try to meet burgeoning demand for new vehicles.
Some plants are adding third work shifts. Others are piling on worker overtime and six-day weeks. And Ford Motor and Chrysler Group are cutting out or reducing the annual two-week July shutdown at several plants this summer to add thousands of vehicles to their output.
"We have many plants working at maximum capacity now," says Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans. "We're building as many (cars) as we can."
The auto recovery is a bright spot in the slow economic comeback, and President Obama has made it a cornerstone of his re-election campaign, saying his team saved Chrysler and General Motors with the government-run bankruptcies it says were the only alternative to collapse.
