This will not be popular..but I think it bears discussing.

Say you had no idea who Bob Lutz is...and you just had his results in front of you...what would you say? I am starting to think the legend is much bigger than the results.

Honestly I am amazed he has come out of this mess as clean as he has. In all reality he has had nearly complete control of GM's product now for 7-8 years. Now some people will say "GM builds better cars!"..and he is just a passenger on a sinking ship. The simple fact however is...it that it is on the back of this product that GM lost record market share and went bankrupt. It is his product GM is not selling enough of now to pay it's bills. Most of the time, at least with Wagoner, Bob got what Bob wanted. He was Rick's "car guy". I would say he is more responsible for what GM spits out it's factories than Wagoner was

He may have given Pontiac the Soltice, GTO, and G8, but he allowed the rest of it's volume lineup to be gutted, renamed, and ***** to Avis. Just as he had a part in the G8, he had a part in the G3. For every success, there is a failure. They spent money on the Camaro, but let the Impala rot on the vine to where it is a joke next to cars like the Taurus. The Malibu, which was supposed to be "the car that got it right", is an afterthought after 2 years on the market. Saturn would not have gotten all the invenstment it did 2-3 years ago without him behind it. He is the one who sent out the memo killing the NA Zeta program so that the GMT-900's could be rushed. While I know the effects of this are debatable..I think GM would have done better with a full lineup for NA based Zeta's than without.

When you look at Lutz, he is easy to like because he is a car guy with a cool personality..and he in general pushes cool cars through. Hell he even emails half the members of this board it seems. But his product is not bringing home the bacon or paying the bills. If he were judged as a nameless exec on his record only....he would have to be just as accountable as Wagoner because the product GM sells today (and does not sell enough of), is his product. Every car GM sells today was under his watch.

Now I think Bob does have a place..because it is nice to have a car guy in the fold and he keeps GM design honest. But the point of my post is..just how much influence do you let him have? I mean putting him in charge of marketing?? I dunno about all that.

 

Wasn't GM's problem one of money?

I can't forget how Lutz got rid of Zarella's brand marketing strategy in favor of the 'product led' restructure.

There have been many good GM cars developed under Lutz (some like the STS wasn't so well received) but I'm sure GM could have done even more with their product IFF they had no cashflow issues.

As they say, GM has been shifting chairs on the Titanic for 30 years...

 

Seems to me like the quality and overall appearance of the cars improved since he was the head.

Can't really blame Lutz for GM getting the short end of the stick in terms of positive media coverage, or the government screwing up the economy.

 

GM's problems stemmed from decisions (or lack thereof) made by the people that ran the company in the 70s, 80s and 90s. You can't rest on your laurels for 30 years and expect everything to be okay. I think Lutz did the best with what he had. He made mistakes, but think about all of the internal fighting we've heard that he had to do just to get some no-brainer stuff to get approval.

 

If the basic premise of this post is that Lutz should have turned things around by now. I disagree completely. Many of the cars GM sells today are a product of old GM think. GM did not have enough money to properly upgrade all of the different nameplates it had. This was not Lutz's fault. GM has the reputation of being a poorly designed, poorly put together supplier of cars to rental companies. This was not Lutz's fault. GM has made progress in terms of the cars it makes, but hideous cars like the current Impala, Lucerne and outgoing Lacrosse, and average cars like the outgoing Cobalt can still be found on GM dealer lots. With cars like that still selling, the perception problem at GM will continue to be a difficult one to solve.

 

There's little doubt that Lutz has not hit a home run every time out, but as others have said a lot of the problem is due to GM's slowly leaking/sinking ship over the last couple of decades. Too many brands and too few development dollars to support everything properly is going to lead to rental queens for some divisions at some point.

The litmus test is in the overall quality of the cars. Even cars that are destined for rental fleets can be built solidly. There's little doubt GM's been building solid cars and "paying attention to detail" now more than it ever has. Problem is, it's going to take a couple (or more) generations of vehicles to solidify this with the public at large.

That's a bit unfair. Sure, Fusion has probably leapfrogged it, but it is brand new. I would buy a Malibu over the current Toyota Camry any day of the week. Of course, sales numbers don't reflect that Malibu is a better car in almost every way - but that's going back to the perception thing, and consistantly offering good product over several cycles.

 

My basic premise is that if Wagoner went because GM went into bankruptcy, how has Lutz escaped unscaved. He is the head of product, which is what GM makes it's money on. He has had to sign off on basically every car GM makes right now.

This is not about "Well GM's cars are better now"..while that is a positive..each new GM model releases seem to sell less than the one it replaces. My numbers may be wrong, but If I remember right, GM used to sell more LaSabres in the US than Buick sells cars now. Since the new chairman seems to equate success to market share...GM new cars are all pretty much a failure based on sales alone.

 

I guess if you want to put a "pass/fail" stamp on Lutz's head - then by an immediate account of how you've put things he would have to fail.

But I would comment about the direction the company was heading when Rick got axed. It was his job to steer, and he was either unable or unwilling to steer clear of disaster. The future was pretty much certain doom. Look at the legacy of what Rick started with and what he made of it.

Turn the gun to Lutz. Yes, sales have gone through the floor. But you cant blame him for the sales problem alone. He was new product. Looking at new product, vehicles have been getting better and the future looks even brighter. By that test, he doesn't look as bad.

Either way, Rick took the fall and Bob was technically out of the picture till he was brought back into the fold. Will that be a wise decision in the end? Still too early to tell. I hope so.

 

I am not sure I understand your logic. GM is making much better cars now. I don't think people would disagree with that. GM has lost market share. I don't think people would disagree with that. The part I don't get is how you are saying the better cars are causing the sliding market share. If it is, then yes, Lutz should take some blame for that.

I think the problem with GM in some cases is the lack of updates to products. The Cobalt has looked the same for too long, at least on the inside. There are other examples of this as well. I think the problem GM has here was funds to correct the problems. That shouldn't be a problem any longer.

Another similar problems was that it took forever for GM to adopt some technologies. 2009 was the year of bluetooth. Many other manufactures had a big headstart here. It took too long for NAV to be offered. It still isn't offered in a Malibu.

GM needs to be quicker to adopt technologies and quicker to update models. With fewer models, fewer brands, and fewer liabilities, I think GM can do just that.

 

Even if he was in total control of products he didn't have an endless checkbook to work from.

Impala has been a victim of it's own success for years, G6 and Malibu raised the bar for GM products. No they haven't gotten the attention they needed, partially because each one was immediately succeeded by another product that devoured every resource, that's not Lutz' fault, that's a structural issue GM has had for years.

Saturn, I agree, could have been toast long ago, but it took a bankruptcy to get rid of it so I'm not going to hang Lutz, or anyone else, who tried to make decent products for the brands they had.

 

In a results driven environment (better designed cars or not), the simple fact is, Bob Lutz's cars are not selling. Actually, in many cases they sell less than the Zarella era cars they replaced.

How could I better put this. You can say GM has had issues for 30 years or whatever. But the simple fact is...their business is selling cars..that is how they make money. They are bankrupt because the do not sell enough cars. They do not sell enough cars because they are not desirable enough across the line. The cars are Bob's responsibility, and the fact GM ended up in bankruptcy makes it hard to classify his tenure as anything but a failure.

Say you sell alarm clocks...and you bring in a guy who has a reputation for being the best alarm clock product manager ever. You put him in charge of the design and engineering of all your alarm clocks. Eight years later...you have cooler alarm clocks..but also only half the sales, and your bankrupt. Would the product manager not be just as much to blame as the CEO?

 

Again though..what Bob wants, Bob gets. Volt is his idea. Imagine if GM plowed Volt money in a Hybrid Malibu and new Imapla.

 

If it wasn't for Bob Lutz, Pontiac would have been dead 5 years ago. Sure he gave us the G3 (which actually I think is better looking than Aveo), however without Bob there's no G8, no Solstice and no GTO. Bob kept the horse moving long after it was already dead.

 

As it seems he had a part witht he G3 he actually had nothing to do with the G3. I won't get into the details on how the G3 came to be but Lutz didn't green light it....

 

To his credit, he was working in a hostile environment. I'm conflicted on the actual results of his visionary nature. Did he make the rubber meet the road?

I think we can all tell that there is a renaissance in progress at GM. If his hands are responsible for cars like the new Camaro, Malibu, and Equinox, CTS, LaCrosse (cars that I believe will lead both the excitement and sales of GM) then I say he receives high marks.