Please, by all means keep him around. Let him import more outdated Australian models on a whim and continue to prove that he has no idea what America really wants.

Good news, GM going to keep kickin ass and taking names. Yea!! I just want to sound like GM#14ever.

Well I agree with Dave0

Maybe he IS being fired and he just doesn’t know it. lol

I agree BAMF….Wagoner probably started the rumor.

That is friggin hilarious…hahaha…

I think he’s doing the best with what he’s been dealt. He’s a car guy -seemingly more so than anyone who’s held that position in a long time. It takes more than one tug boat to turn a barge around in a hurry. Like GM or not, you have to admit they are trying some different things: Solstice/Sky, V-series Caddys, G6 hardtop, 500+hp vette, new cross-over trio, the aforementioned Aussie RWD platforms, etc.

Hmm…sounds wierd. “there is no plan to have me retire?”
As far as he knows. But still you gotta wonder about the vehicles that have been developed by GM-NA when they are pulling vehicles from GM-Aus.

One person thinking he’s the saviour of GM? Ooooh…that would be Lutz! He’s hamming it up for the platinum parachute with gold cords. I say to cut the gold cords and distribute the platinum parachute among those who have earned it. Besides, GM needs the money.

@F451,

That would be funny if it wasn’t true.

Hmm…sounds wierd. “there is no plan to have me retire?”
As far as he knows. But still you gotta wonder about the vehicles that have been developed by GM-NA when they are pulling vehicles from GM-Aus.
Comment by Jazz, posted on January16 at 6:29 pm

It takes a lot of money and years to develop a platform. The US is interested in having large RWD vehicles again. Rather than going through the expense and years of engineering, design and testing, they decided to pull something over that was a proven design. The GTO is a awesome car, and they were able to get it too the market quickly by importing Holden’s with minimal modifications. Granted they should have invested more effort into the appearance, but its still a nice car. I don’t think they imported Holden’s for anything other than for those reasons.

maybe when he retires GM WILL compete with BMW… hahaha

He used to be known as a “car guy”. I think GM has turned him into a “company man”.

He is still has done a great job overall, considering what he started with.

Whatever you do, you left GM much better than what it was when you came aboard.

lutz got what he wanted. that damn sexy ass solstice. it braught excitement to the pontiac since the GTO (yeah i said it.) and if lutz gets his way then there will be more good stuff to come out of GM.
Saturn Sky
Gmc Acadia-Buick Enclave-Saturn Outlook-Chevy Lambda
Chevy Camaro
just to name a few. keep it up man!

I hope he retires soon. Enough of his jingoistic attitude spreading like a fungus at GM.

Amen Piablo.

He’s that guy who’s already had 3-4 pops before he gets to the DYC dining room and gets louder as the evening goes. …Maybe they could send him to Bagdad to open a Buick dealership.

j i m

why would you want a car guy running a company? he should open a garage or autobody shop. a business guy is probably better off.

kellyp…..I’ve always thought that too.

Will a few Solstice like “cool” cars save a company that is in debt in the billions??? I don’t think “cool” vehicles are the answer, nor do I think a “car guy” is the answer to GM’s problems. How many “cool” cars does Toyota have??? What is Toyota known for??? QUALITY, DEPENDENDABILITY, VALUE…..not “FUN”, “COOL”…etc.

Agreed, American consumers want dependability FIRST fun, sexy, sporty second. Which is something GM has totally ignored. GM’s montage “Lets cut as many corners as we can to bring this to market, gussy it up slap a SS badge on it and we’ll sell em like hot cakes” Reason number one as to why they are loosing ground w/ consumers. The only ones left are Koolaid drinking freeks, who would like nothing less than see everything but GM be wipped off the face of the planet, because their not “American auto manus” Its a bias so great i would liken it to religion. And you all know what im talking about. PPL like GM#14ever. Those ppl are real. They spout propaganda and lies. Much like ppl who are for bush. I bet you could link the two Koolaid drinking groups together. Personally ppl like that are dangerous. They dont accept new information unless its propaganda by the top.

Many of the European (German) companies have quality…
Many of the Japanese companies have dependability….
Many of the American companies have the ability to make powerful vehicles for low prices….?

That’s all I can think of to sum it up haha

Oh and down w/ LUTZ, jesus christ get someone in there who knows what they are doing. I could do a better job!

I have yet to see a naturally aspired American 3.3-3.6L do over 270hp. The japanese have that technology w/ Lexus and Infiniti producing in excess of 300hp. The Germans power focus is in V8’s Something the Japaneses nore Americans can match. To make it worse they have the Korean autos catching up power wise and Americans are accepting Hyundai and Kia as mainstream autos worthy of a test drive and consideration. I believe this is the most difficult time ever for American autos.

He’s not going anywhere. He’s holding the riegns to the sleigh that is painted Red, white and blue, and carries a big bowtie on the front. Why would Lutz leave a position like that? Talk about throwing yourself to the wolves.

He is making all the right moves and companies from Germany to Japan are felling the pressure. GM is unstoppable, unbeatable, and destined for supremacy. Bob is leading the way.

Wow. The last few posts are just down right scary. I don’t even know where to begin.

it is true that the solstice wouldnt be with us today without Bob Lutz.

“I have yet to see a naturally aspired American 3.3-3.6L do over 270hp. The japanese have that technology w/ Lexus and Infiniti producing in excess of 300hp.”
Comment by XeroBlue, posted on January17 at 11:05 am

Yes, because that’s a technological issue….

Me….you are right. I was just saying that the lack of quality was how they got into this mess IMO and thus began their loss of the market share to the “imports”. It seemed like their first reaction was to create “cool/fun” cars to remedy and take attention away from the real underlying issue of quality/reliability. It’s going to take more than a couple of “cool” things to turn their problems around.

Joseph, cool fun cars is just one part of it. Quality and reliability, they’ve addressed it some time ago, and continue addressing it today.

Does anyone know why Toyota is successful? It’s the company culture, specifically “Kai Zen”. It’s the bottom-up mentality that Toyota uses to manufacture. They give the people on the assempby lines the ability to make suggestions on improvements and quality control. They empower their employees. It’s the single reason Toyota has as many plants in the US as Ford, and not one of them is unionized. Not a single employee. With that type of culture, the entire corporation is energized on success. How do you think that sort of mentality would work in a unionized shop? GM can’t manufacture a vehicle in the US in a non-unionized plant. And that has been the case for a very long time. Unions suffer from disengagement, they do not feel they are apart of the organization, they feel the organization is against them. Union vs Management. If anyone really wants to support GM and help them be as successful as they once were, start by not supporting unions.

piablo,

the union at my company just finished a strike. during which time productivity improved.

i think the biggest problem ford and gm have is that their business model is based around volume, so if the volume of sales is below estimates it has a huge effect on profit. What ford and gm have done is to try to make cars cheaper at the expense of quality, reliability to increase profit. instead they should have focused on creating a better product that would increase volume sales which is what toyota and honda have done.

Modern unions should just dissolve. They no longer serve their purpose appropriately.

I used to support unions being from the Detroit area. I think they have served their purpose, and now their just hurting companies like the big three. Hasn’t GM implemented the Kaizen thing into their plants recently?

kellyp – During the strike productivity improved? Or after the strike? Either way, what do you feel were the causes to increased productivity? Do you agree that employees of unions feel disassociated from the company and more of a union employee than a ‘company x’ employee?

I agree GM’s business plan is based around volume, all major car manufacturers profits are based on volume. An example of a car company that is not is Bugatti, or Ferrari. What you have are extremly expensive products. On charges of reliability and quality, I simply disagree. JD Powers ratings on problems in GM vehicles are not bad at all. They may not be #1, but that does not mean they are terrible. If there are a few points separating first and second place, it does not mean 2nd place should bag it up and quite the business. As far as costs go, yes, Honda and Toyota do manufacture vehicles for less. There are reasons for this. First and foremost, they do not have to tack on an immediate $4000 to cover healthcare and salaries of the union work force. If the UAW were so wonderful, then Toyota and Honda would be jumping on the UAW bandwagon. But so far, they are trying to keep them out. It’s just a stark difference that all of GM and Ford’s factories are unionized by contract, but not one of Honda’s or Toyota’s are unionized, and their factories seem to all have better quality control.

I think Toyota wants to be the sales leader. But, more importantly to the investors is profit. Higher volume sales are great, but as we know now, that has nothing to do with the profitablility of a car company. High-volume doesn’t equal more profit. Better perceived reliability and price-proud products do. By that I mean, Toyota/Honda can ask more for their cars and not bat an eye because people know the brand’s reputation. They appreciate that the slightly higher price may be well worth it down the road. I personally think GM is on the upswing though.
Piablo, kosai, -I agree with you on the unions.

piablo,

during the strike productivity increased. engineers were doing the work of the union people.

about the quality it is really more about perception and demand, consumers think the cars have poor quality or toyota has higher quality causes demand for gm’s and fords to go down. So making “volume” cars people want for whatever reason will increase profit. or they could switch to a margin model like bmw or mb and sell lower volumes for higher profit. either way what lutz and gm are currently doing isn’t working.

I like what FOrd did. Fire the auto guy and bring in someone fresh to the business.

They had better keep Lutz. He’s the only thing keeping them alive right now.

“I have yet to see a naturally aspired American 3.3-3.6L do over 270hp. The japanese have that technology w/ Lexus and Infiniti producing in excess of 300hp.”
Comment by XeroBlue, posted on January17 at 11:05 am

Perhaps you should open your eyes and see what is really out there.

3.6L at GM is 285 in the crossover Acadia and Outlook. You know like a truck. It is over 300 in the CTS.

Get the facts right

Unions are evil and pray on weak minded workers. They only have UNION intrests at heart, not the workers intrests. As stated they create a devide between the company and workers. A Union worker will only do what is nessecary to get by, while a non-union worker does whatever it takes to GET IT DONE, and DO IT RIGHT. Unions fester corruption and greed. I’ll never work for a Union, BUT I KNOW GM4EVER is a UNION boy! Has to be. What is it, local 409 pipefitters, right?

Oh, and Lutz can lick my YamBag.

kellyp – I appreciate the dialog! It’s a shame about your company’s strike. Unfortunately, it’s not surprising.

I would give it time with GM. It takes a while to turn a tanker the size of GM. They’ve made a lot of changes over the past few years and it will be another 2 before we see the real gains or losses. It also takes a while to sway public opinion. I do not disagree that the general public opinion is GM’s quality is inferior to the foreign brands. Let’s say the average cycle time of new car buying is somewhere around 3 and 4 years of ownership, factoring in leases with 5 year loans. It will take that long to notice any sort of change in public opinion. The great new products are rolling off the lines now. They’ve acknowledged which factories build good quality and which ones don’t. They’ve also acknowledged that incentives do not promote a good image. So now it’s time to sit and see what the effects are. I predict good fortunes.

Piablo & kellyp:
It’s refreshing to see someone suggesting a solution instead of just bashing on this site. Piablo, you’re right about turning around a tanker “the size of GM.” It’s going to take some time, but people forget that the downward slide didn’t happen in a day, either. Remember the Monza and that scary version of the Nova…or maybe the Cimarron? (shudder). Those were vehicles that should’ve been a wake up call way back then, but management was asleep at the wheel because the economy was still pretty good at that time. Arrogance has cost GM a lot over the years.

As for unions…
Unions are established to serve and protect the rights of their members, but the UAW has overstepped the bounds in many areas. Management deserves some blame here, too, since it takes two to tango. The jobs bank wasn’t created solely by the unions–management had to agree to it, or it wouldn’t have been in the contract. So who’s the dork in management who thought that was a good idea?!

Unfortunately, right now one of the biggest factors hindering GM’s recovery plan is public perception. Even though GM has made great strides in reliability, the public still believes that the import manufacturers are superior. Check out the J.D. Powers results in this recent article:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007701110333

90Z – LOL! The Cimmaron was such a failure that it’s destined to be a collected classic!

That’s a great article you posted. That speaks to my point about being 2nd place is not a bad thing with reference to the gap in separation. The REAL truth is that American brands are not that bad. For every anti-GM person, there’s the facts, read ‘em and weep. So now it’s time for some major PR work. It starts with delivering a vehicle that looks so good people have no choice but to buy. Solstice. Camaro. Acadia. They’ll see for themselves. The real work will be with the Impala, Malibu and others in the “everyday joe” category. Buyers of Camry and Accord are much more faithful than someone purchasing the aforementioned designs.

I agree on your point regarding two to tango. The problem with management is they give up. Unions are monsters to deal with. Management doesn’t come to the table for war like unions do. So they make concessions left and right, it’s not worth the fight. That’s not an excuse, simply the truth.

Most do not know why they have job banks. GM had the idea to make their plants more efficient (and they have succeeded, as they are tops in quantitative scores by Harbour). To do this meant that some UAW employees would lose thier jobs. Well we know that will never happen so they agreed to put any workers that are sidelined in the job banks. Unfortunately jobs were lost to the heavy competition from the new companies and many more hourlys were out of a job.

90Z: I love how the article is under the “Editorials” section and is the definition of such. Other sources display the Americans being way farther behind the Asian brands in reliability and quality, such as Consumer Reports, and no, don’t bash CR, because if you do so it will only show your ignorance, so many people do simply because they don’t like reality, and if you do so, it will speak the same for you. The reality is that J.D. isn’t the only source for this information, and it is not necessarily the most accurate, thought everyone who loves the domestics loves to cite it. Look at the vehicles we’re talking about, when you speak of “perceived quality”, or rather when the article speaks of it, can you blame people for avoiding the Americans? So many domestic cars just aren’t put together well, bad fit and finish, cloned models, squeaks and rattles, you see it in a variety of GM products and Ford products as well, this isn’t the public psychologically assuming domestics are inferior in quality, it’s domestics truly being inferior in quality, nothing else to it. GM has made strides, this is true, but right now they’re at the point in quality that Toyota was at 5 or 6 years ago, and well, frankly, that’s not good enough.

Piablo: people are faithful to the Accord and Camry because those vehicles have proven themselves to be the top in the class, the Accord especially, a perfect blend of sportiness and reliability and practicality really, along with extremely high quality construction, and an interior GM designers can only dream about. Those buyers are faithful to those cars because they are the best, noones being brainwashed here but you bud

Lambo: Funny, my post wasn’t directed at you, yet you felt the need to reply to it. Do you know WHY it wasn’t directed at you? Gee, maybe it’s because you are so hell-bent on shoving Toyota down our throats that you’re no longer able to view anything objectively. I may not be a Toyota lover, but I’m willing to give credit where credit is due. J.D. Power surveys are important in the auto industry, whether you (or anyone else for that matter) like the results or not.

As for Consumer Reports, isn’t that the magazine that just got thumped for printing inaccurate information regarding child restraints? Obviously, CR is not as wonderful as you would like to think it is.

“The reality is that J.D. isn’t the only source for this information, and it is not necessarily the most accurate, thought everyone who loves the domestics loves to cite it”
Comment by LamborghiniZ, posted on January19 at 10:56 am

Just like people that hate US automakers love to cite CR? As their statistical and reporting methods aren’t always the greatest, you should take reports for many of these research companies (JD Power, CR, US World, etc) with a grain of salt. They’ve all been criticized at one time or another, with good reason.

People need to develop better critical reasoning skills.

“Other sources display the Americans being way farther behind the Asian brands in reliability and quality, such as Consumer Reports, and no, don’t bash CR, because if you do so it will only show your ignorance, so many people do simply because they don’t like reality, and if you do so, it will speak the same for you.” – LamborghiniZ

Consumer Reports in 2003 said the Ford ranger reliability ratings were in the toilet. They also said the ratings for the Mazda B-Series light truck were significantly better for the same period of time – enough to up the score by double-digits in some categories. The problem? The Ford Ranger and the Mazda B-Series are precisely the same vehicle and were built side-by-side by the same people in the same plants. You might wanna rethink that quip about “reality” in general and “ignorance” in particular. Consumer reports relies on feedback from readers – as the Ranger nearly outsold the B-Series 2 to 1, it’s not all that difficult to figure out why more people would report problems on the Ranger. Somehow this got missed at CR. I’m not saying they’re crap, but touting them as gospel truth isn’t credible either.
.
“So many domestic cars just aren’t put together well, bad fit and finish, cloned models, squeaks and rattles, you see it in a variety of GM products and Ford products as well, this isn’t the public psychologically assuming domestics are inferior in quality, it’s domestics truly being inferior in quality, nothing else to it.” – LamborghiniZ

Agreed – this has been the case before, and I think Ford and GM deserve to a large extent the perception problem they now have. Their brand loyalty and image has taken a huge hit and it didn’t have to happen in the first place. They broke it, now it’s time for them to fix it. By and large, I think they are on the right track. These days, I think public perception is a few years behind today’s reality when it comes to quality in American cars. Ford and GM have their work cut out for them when it comes to restoring their credibility with the buying public.
.
“GM has made strides, this is true, but right now they’re at the point in quality that Toyota was at 5 or 6 years ago, and well, frankly, that’s not good enough.” – LamborghiniZ

The same could be said of Nissan in late 2002 when the new Altima was released. It had the same cost-cutting on the interior that the Fusion and the Aura have now. So did the Maxima in 2003 and the Murano in 2004. Interiors were not bad, but not great either.. basically just acceptable. There’s reason for optimism with GM in that it’s very likely they will turn around and further invest into improving their products. Ford is a wildcard – I’ve followed them closely over the last few years and have never seen such a bi-polar company in my life. In any case, if GM & Ford follow Nissan’s example, then a healthy portion of the profits will go right back into upping the game for the Aura and the Fusion (they need Nav systems, among other upscale features)