Comments on: Born-again GM makes first mistake on road to recovery

By: Richard Batty

Richard Batty — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:21:14 +0000

To understand the reinstatment of Bob Lutz, you must read his bio. He is being reinstated because he is good, damn good. While Wagner spent his career within the GM culture and was a perpetuator of the old GM culture, Lutz has been a top executive for many of the best automakers in the world. He understand how GM works and how many of the other automakers work. He knows what works amoung the best automakers in the world.

Lutz is likely the only executive in the world that under stand all of how GM works, how other auto makers work, and the auto industry as a whole. Lutz was brought into GM from outside to turn GM around. Lutz was responsible for GM making major improvements in quality, cost savings and a wave of new world class products. Lutz’s plan was working until the economic downturn hit.

Since GM’s new chairman knows nothing at all about the auto industry, he will need someone under him to explain how things work. This someone is Bob Luts.

By: Paul C from Austin

Paul C from Austin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:26:16 +0000

You’re being a little unfair to Bob Lutz guys- wherever he has been, that car company has prospered. And GM’s quality has greatly improved over the last few years- check out the various consumer magazines and sites on this. And some of credit for this quality-upgrade goes to Lutz. And while you can debate some of his preferences for cars (loud and large;-), it does not mean that he is wrong about what a large chunk of car buyers in the US want, and have wanted. There is a reason that the best-selling automobile in the US, until 2 years ago, was a truck.

What will drive the sales of small cars is not a desire of most Americans to conserve fuel- it will be the high price of that fuel. And when the price of fuel goes down, so does the appeal of small, fuel-efficient cars. This pattern has been repeated over and over. And, while I am hopeful that people can be educated and persuaded to make a change, and not just because of the price of gas, most will not change very quickly. And even then, once Batteries have gotten lighter, more energy-dense and cheaper, you will see a return of large, fast cars, SUV’s and pick-up trucks.

And whatever his inspiration or motivation, Bob is the father of the Chevy Volt, which has jump-started EV projects from every other car manufacturer. Besides- without Bob, where would we get all these outrageous quotes to bandy about;-)

By: Buck Futter

Buck Futter — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:10:45 +0000

Agree. Hopefully this is the nail in the coffin for GM. I can’t see Lutz having the insight and ability to turn this failing company around.

By: gopher65

gopher65 — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:07:22 +0000

Yup. I have no confidence in GM’s lasting power. They’ve already shown that they’re incapable of producing decent quality vehicles, whether you’re comparing them to the NA or Asian competition. I’d have let the company collapse and offered those (conditional) government loans to its competitors to snatch up its assets in a firesale.

By: philip

philip — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:06:03 +0000

Why doesn’t GM just buy Tesla Motors ? Also, why is Gm putting the ugly logo on the chevy volt when it’s suppose to be a new innovative car but with same ugly log ?

By: Bill Carson

Bill Carson — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:35:15 +0000

The first question we have to ask is about honesty ? In Fairhaven Massachusetts a wind turbine failed at the intersection of Rte 240 and Rte 195 .This would you think be news worthy but in the southeastern part of Massachusetts refered to by local politicians as the Bijou of New England it gets no attention at all . The newspaper s-t.com only prints good stories called “puff stories ” about wind turbines. If you think I am kidding google ” Howland Turbine Attorney General ” . If the country is going to go forward with renewable energy the states need to be up front and honest and not have the state representatives in the wind turbine business !