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Article: Bob Lutz, is he making the grade?

1K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  rlhammon 
#1 ·
Discussion starter · #9 ·
I generally disagree with articles like this. Although some of these cars do have Bob's stamp on them, they were still partially in development when Bob arrived at GM. For instance, he ordered some changes to the LaCrosse, so they must have had a design fairly far along even 3 years ago.

As Solsticeman said, and I think everyone would agree on, GM's new cars are vastly improved in terms of build quality and materials quality over the models they are replacing. However, the damage to GM's reputation has already been done.

Car's like the G6 are fine bread and butter automobiles. Its base engine is not the high output car enthusiasts want, but it still tops the base 4 cylinder engines in many competitors. The interior is of good quality, the exterior is somewhat Japanese looking and doesn't take many risks, but it also doesn't look bad. If it was a Honda, they would sell $300,000 of them.

However, GM's reputation is what it is, which turns off buyers before they give it a chance. A large percentage of Americans think GM makes junk, and they don't give the car a first look, much less a second look.

Its very hard to change that impression by simply making a good, mid level car that is competitive with other offerings in its class, but really does nothing exceptionally well. It doesn't stand out in any one area to get import buyers to look at GM and take notice. In fact, none of GM's bread and butter offerings do.

I think GM needs a real ground breaking car that will sell in volume. Maybe through styling such as Chrysler has done with the 300C. Or they could do it with class leading interior quality and design, or mechanically with more power, more refined engines, maybe affordable AWD. Something to give the car a real comptitive advantage.

In the end, that is really what it is about. The car's that sell the best have a competitive advantage. Be it class leading reliability, low price, features, power, styling, interiors, etc.

Maybe it is too much to expect of Bob Lutz to turn a compamy who turned out the Saturn Ion as a ground up design to be churning out a car that could truly be competitive with a BMW 3 series in just 3 years. Lutz is good at what he does, but there is no switch for him to throw at GM which would make up for the loss of good engineering and design advances they have not had over the past 20 years due to its beaurocracy.

For instance, they just discovered the liquid filled suspension bushing, which other companies (VW in particular) have been using to get a better balance between ride quality and handling ability.

IMO Lutz just needs more time. GM is now improving and progressing at a very quick rate, and they are closing the gap between them and rivals. However, it might be a little too late for them to maintain their market share lead. I don't see them turning it around quick enough to fend off the onslaught of Toyota. Then, the last question is whether they can catch up and keep pace with the imports in R&D since they are not making as much money on each car, and they are bleading a lot of red ink due to the declining market share.
 
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