Bob Lutz's Nine Greatest Hits

by Justin Berkowitz

Published: October 29th, 2008

Being Bob Lutz has a fantastic job. He’s rich as sin (thank you, Daimler, for buying Chrysler), and he has Czar in his unofficial title with GM. He can say whatever he feels like, whether it’s about global warming (“a crock of shit,” in his words) or random price projections for meeting the next round of EPA standards. During Maximum Bob’s epic career, he’s “championed” some very interesting though chronically unsuccessful products. Some of these were on sale twenty years ago, others are on sale today. And still others will likely never see the light of day. While so many cars have been touched by Lutz’s magic hands, we present to you his big nine.

Justin Berkowitz

Immensely bored law student. I've also got 3 dogs.

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2 of 32 comments

Dr Lemming on Oct 30, 2008

I'm surprised that folks are calling the Viper a success. Certainly it can't be called a commercial success, because sales have been small even by niche standards. I wonder whether the Viper has any hope of ever generating a profit for Chrysler. So what then did it accomplish? The Corvette has been good for GM because it displays the corporation's ability to compete with the best sports cars in the word. The Viper, in contrast, is iconic only because it is so excessive and crass. It's the kind of car a 13-year-old would design. How does that help Chrysler's branding, particularly given the rest of its product line? A modern Jeepster would have been a more useful halo car than the Viper. But because Lutz has such a small one, he had to insist on the ultimate compensation car.

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Wolven on Oct 30, 2008
The Corvette has been good for GM because it displays the corporation’s ability to compete with the best sports cars in the word. The Viper, in contrast, is iconic only because it is so excessive and crass. Your not biased or anything, are ya? And how loooonnnnngg did it take before the Corvette became even REMOTELY close to the Viper in performance??? And WHO was it that moved from ChryCo to GM and pushed for a Corvette that would actually be able to compete with a Viper? You ever notice how much the Vette began to look like the Viper after Bob went to GM?

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