Detroit’s Small Cars Clog Dealer Lots

November was a blockbuster month for U.S. sales of small cars, which zoomed 43% to 220,200 units.

But sales of many domestic-brand compacts and subcompacts were tepid, and the companies started December with big inventories of little cars.

The Wall Street Journal notes that those include Chrysler's Dodge Dart compact sedan (a 173-day supply), General Motors' Chevrolet Sonic subcompact (more than 125 days) and Cruze compact (96 days) and Ford's Fiesta subcompact (124 days.)

Analysts say domestic automakers were caught off guard when their Japanese rivals intent on winning back the share they lost during 2011's natural disasters in Asia rolled out big incentives on their smallest models.

Hefty rebates made the Ford Focus compact a notable exception to Detroit's small-car problem. Focus sales surged 56% to 18,300 units in November, leaving the company with about a 60-day supply of the model.

Overall, Ford's 73-day stockpile of vehicles isn't far from the 60 to 65 days the industry considers ideal. Chrysler inventory was 90 days. But analysts are worried about GM's 106-day supply of light vehicles, which includes 139 days worth of fullsize pickup trucks.