There's A Reason Not Everyone Rises To The Top....

Every car guy loves Bob Lutz. He's the king of the car guys because he knows and loves cars and is just damn cool.

However, when it comes to politics, which is part of the portfolio, as it were, of a first line CEO, he's pretty much a complete shithead.

A love-letter to Lutz from Jerry Flint, who has a hard-on for him:

While in Detroit, I met with Robert Lutz, vice chairman of General Motors and product czar. While many of the changes that the outspoken but knowledgeable Lutz helped implement have yet to trickle down to GM's quarterly financial statements, GM's newest vehicles are winning widespread praise across the automotive press.

The 6-foot, two-and-a-half inches tall, broad-shouldered, silver-haired--and maybe the handsomest senior citizen around--Lutz was willing to talk about GM's new models, but energy prices, fuel efficiency and new technologies were foremost on his agenda.

Lutz started by expressing his concerns about the 35 miles per gallon mandate working through the Congress. "The public has been led to believe that all this will be free, that there little tweaking we need to do. Tweak the transmissions a little bit, fiddle around with the fuel injection a little bit, and we'll easily get 35 miles per gallon," he says. "Well, I am here to tell you that without throwing thousands of dollars of expensive technology into vehicles we will not get to a 35 mpg fleet average."

Most industry executives publicly support the 35 miles per gallon mandate for 2020, but probably because they do not want to seem anti-green. Lutz, on the other hand, is not what anyone calls politically correct. In fact, he has a jaundiced view of any type of mileage regulation. "It cuts what people spend on gasoline, and what happens? The inevitable outcome is that people either drive more or buy larger vehicles."

Detroit executives have long complained that thanks to mileage mandates, they end up building cars they cannot sell. What would Lutz favor in lieu of mileage standards? He has said in the past that the industry prefers taxes, as in other countries, that push up the price of gasoline, so that customers want to buy fuel-stingy vehicles. Members of Congress, always worried about re-election, have never endorsed such taxes.

Trucks present an even greater problem. "No one knows how to get trucks, which are heavier than cars, to 35," he says. GM has a new "two-mode" hybrid system that it is starting to put on its large sport utility vehicles, but the cost is enormous. This reporter asked if the additional expense is as much as $10,000. "Well, at least, and we're not selling it for that," Lutz claims.

"Even with that, we get a full-sized [Chevy] Tahoe sport utility to 22 miles per gallon, which is 50% to 60% better than anyone else, but is still only 22. So where are we going to get the other 13 [mpg]?

"We don't have a clue, and throwing another 10,000 bucks at it isn't going to do it either. So yeah, it's easy to pass laws."

Lutz, once a Marine fighter pilot, says he does not give up, but he adds that he wishes lawmakers would listen to the industry occasionally. "You can say in the future we downsize, and the Chevy HHR [a compact wagon] becomes the new Suburban [Chevrolet's largest SUV]. Now, what do you do when you want to tow a horse trailer? Work with miniature horses?"

It is not that Lutz does not favor new fuel-saving technologies. He is a big backer of the hybrid electric car that GM is developing, and has staked his reputation on it. The idea is a battery pack that can provide all the power for a range of 40 to 50 miles, and when that runs out, a small engine powers a generator to create more electricity to run the car. Drivers of such vehicles can also recharge the batteries at home. GM's current schedule calls for production in late 2010 or early 2011.

"It probably won't be a flawless launch," Lutz warns. Interpretation: Expect delays and possible teething problems.

On a scale of 1 to 10, he says his confidence level is a 9.5 that GM can build the Chevy Volt, the name of this hybrid electric car. The production date is another matter; Lutz's confidence drops to a 5.5. "We're holding people's feet to the fire for the very end of 2010 into 2011. But that can slip, depending on how the development goes."

The biggest problem with the Volt is developing the lithium ion battery system, which must pass several development hurdles before the company can proceed with software and other new and complicated systems for such a car. Other carmakers are not convinced lithium ion batteries will be ready so quickly. Lutz says the GM team is using a different battery chemistry from the one that caused problems--particularly heat output and risk of fire. He tells me that he is encouraged by the initial tests of the battery packs that GM plans to use.

Lutz, who turn 76 next February, is Detroit's most credible executive. He's not afraid to say what he thinks, he doesn't think much of global warming, and he's not worried about his career path.

Second, he knows the business. He headed sales for BMW in Europe, moved to Ford Motor, and eventually was a Ford executive vice president and headed its European operations. He then was president of Chrysler and led the last product revival there, driving dramatic designs like his PT Cruiser, which has had more than 1 million sales to date.

Lutz came out of retirement to work for GM, seized control of the product process and led the revival. Car and Driver magazine just listed three GM cars on its "10 best" list, and who can remember the last time that happened? Motor Trend magazine made a Cadillac its "Car of the Year" while also praising the new Chevrolet Malibu. Even Consumer Reports people say good things about GM cars.

None of this means that Lutz is always right. He has had his mistakes--a Cadillac made from a Saab in Europe and the Pontiac GTO from Australia are a couple of examples. Even so, those poorly received products do not dim the positive change at GM.

Perhaps the most important influence that Lutz has had at GM has been his effort at driving the globalization of GM's product development process. This effort will be either his greatest success or his greatest mistake.

Like all wingnuts, he has to beat the facts to death, etc., to make his point. In no particular order:

SUVs don't have to get 35 mph to enable a company to hit the mileage target. It's a company-wide average.

A cooling market for over-sized SUVs will help raise a company's average. (SUV sales blazed fro, loose money and killer lease deals. OTOH, the chicken's coming home to roost as a lot of owners realize they neither need nor enjoy an SUV nor are happy to pay for crap mileage.)

More importantly, a lot of weight-saving materials are on the cusp of becoming affordable.

And ditto new technologies. Mybe Lutz can look under the hood of his company's new Cadillac CTS for a clue.

And, maybe worse, the whole piece is inane because the battle is essentially over.

And apparently Flint's readers don't buy Lutz's shit.