Bob Lutz's Nine Greatest Hits
Published: October 29th, 2008
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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.
Immensely bored law student. I've also got 3 dogs.
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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.