This summer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered all state departments to reduce their vehicle fleets by 15 percent. He hopes that will save $24.1 million a year.

Schwarzenegger issued an executive order ordering the cuts after an internal state audit found thousands of state workers were driving state cars home from work without proper need or justification.

The state later sold 438 surplus vehicles at the Great California Garage Sale, raising more than $1 million.

Lamoureux said departments that wanted to buy Priuses may no longer want them, thanks to the executive order.

DGS will blend the unused Priuses into its own fleet, and sell older, gasoline-only powered cars.

At Caltrans, equipment chief Walter Menda said that while drivers who cruise past his depot yards under Highway 50 may think dozens of trucks have sat there for months, Caltrans officials are "constantly rotating similar-looking vehicles in and out."

But Menda said many of the stripped-down trucks delivered in the last nine months have sat unused because Caltrans actually designs, engineers and assembles its own light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, including those with snowplows and snowblowers attached. The plant is certified as a vehicle manufacturer by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Using equipment identification numbers from Caltrans records, The Bee found three Ford F-450 diesel pickup trucks delivered in April 2008 were still sitting unused in the Caltrans yard this week.

All three were purchased with five-year, 100,000-mile extended warranties. That cost $2,020 each.

Despite the unused 2008 trucks still sitting in the yard, Caltrans ordered three more Ford F-450 trucks in May, also with the extended warranties. They're all still sitting in the yard, too.

Two large Caltrans trucks carried Department of Motor Vehicles registrations showing they were bought by the state on Sept. 5 and Nov. 15, 2006.

Four more big trucks displayed records showing they were bought in April 2008.

Menda said it was "somewhat coincidental" that his division made a flurry of orders for trucks and dump-truck bodies on the last day of the state's fiscal year. He denied spending funds to avoid losing them.

"It could look like that, but it was somewhat coincidental that the purchase orders were all signed and dated June 30," he said. "It was well planned out, in advance. It was just part of the procurement process. These are heavy-duty trucks. It's not like you can just walk onto a car lot and buy them."

Menda acknowledged trucks do sit unused for months due to factors beyond the department's control, like a shortage of parts needed to assemble the full vehicles. Shipments are also delayed and some trucks have to be sent back if there are recalls.

Three furlough days a month have slowed assembly of the trucks and their components, he added.

Steve Bannion, a fleet truck salesman with Bonander Truck in Turlock, said he made a flurry of sales to Caltrans on June 30 because General Motors surprised clients this summer and announced it would no longer make certain gasoline-powered medium-duty trucks.

Caltrans told him they wanted to lock up a supply of cabs so they wouldn't have to retrofit diesel trucks with particulate-capturing devices to comply with state emissions regulations, he said.

Call The Bee's Andrew McIntosh, (916) 321-1215.