By Frank Williams
June 17, 2008 -
Yesterday, Cardomain bragged told their tribes that they were having dinner with GM Car Czar Maximum Bob Lutz. They asked readers what questions they should demand (in a sycophantic sort of way) of the winner of TTAC's first annual Bob Lutz Award. Cardomain received all of 15 responses, most of which were pretty lame. However, there were a few good ones. "Why is it so easy for foreign GM divisions in Australia and Europe to make great cars, and so hard for GM in America to make them?" We haven't been invited to dinner with anyone (and aren't holding our breath until an invitation shows up in our mailbox). But still, it's an interesting question– one that our own RF answered with "Is your pension bankruptcy proof?" So now, we're giving you, TTAC's Best and Brightest, the chance to play fantasy asshole. If Bob Lutz' handlers suddenly suffered a total breakdown in judgment and invited us– OK, you– to a one-on-one dinner with their head of Global Product Development, what would you ask GM's car guru?
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POWERED
June 17th, 2008 at 9:12 am
My #1 question to Lutz is: When are you going to retire and allow someone more competent to take over your job?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Question to Mr Lutz: “Can you look yourself in the mirror while shaving?”
June 17th, 2008 at 9:13 am
jaje: allow someone more competent to take over your job?
See? That's just rude. And we all know Bob wants to stick around until the Volt's for sale. So… not for some time yet.
June 17th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Can I have a job on the GM board?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:27 am
So tell me again why J. Lieberman didn’t get a few more good quotes out of Max. B.? The “pinhead” line is great, and honestly I’m not sure what I would have asked. But I don’t do this for a living, you do. Or was he just trying to smooth things over with the GM goons after your party-crash earlier?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Why are the Solstice and Sky so beautiful, yet so useless?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:36 am
“Is your brain connected to your mouth?”
June 17th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Truthfully, do you and Rick really have a turnaround plan??
June 17th, 2008 at 9:44 am
My question would be one of these two:
1. How can you justify your high salary, bankruptcy proof pension and outrageous perks, when you have presided over GM’s worst market share slide, GM’s worst ever losses and GM’s lowest public image and at the same time ask the rank and file to make sacrifices for the company?
or
2. What do you say to the people who say that Toyota has a superior business model and superior technologies to GM?
My sensible half would want to ask question 1, but my twisted half would want to ask question 2, just to see him foam at the mouth! ;O)
June 17th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Have you ever had a breakdown on a 2 year old car, taken it to a GM dealership, and waited for repairs that you thought should be under Warranty. So how did that go for you? Oh and did you still have 3 more years of tears of payments on it?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Is there a point at which a plane becomes too big to fly? You know, the tons and tons of extra everything, make it so fat and listless and non-responsive that if it did get up, there’s almost nothing you could do with besides crash?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Can I be your replacement when you retire?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:57 am
My #1 question to Lutz is: When are you going to retire and allow someone more competent to take over your job?
Rude it might be, but this is the only reasonable question to ask Lutz. Any other question is premised on him giving an honest response, which frankly is quite a ridiculous premise.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:06 am
When are you going to retire and allow someone more competent to take over your job?
+1
June 17th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Mr Lutz..can I come live on your planet? Mine is full of gas-guzzling battle tanks and craptastic rental cars with depreciation so steep, the Olympic diving team uses their trunk lids as a practice platform.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:21 am
SM: So Bob, ya ever remember some of them history courses you took back at Berkley?
BL: Shit yeah!
SM: Really! And you still say the things you do?
June 17th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Why can’t we have a competitive B-class vehicle from a GM brand in America?
June 17th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Why doesn’t GM make more GOOD small cars instead of cheap immitations of a proper small car. Drive a Civic and come back and tell me that a Cobalt or Aveo is competitive…
June 17th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Mr. Lutz, you’re a betting man, so let’s bet. I’ll bet that any halfway decent project manager in any fortune 100 company could do your job for 10x less than you and 10 times better. What do you think, $1.25m from you vs. $1250 from me. That’s about equal ratios to net worth (well, not on my end, but let us enjoy this pleasant fiction!). Plus, I’ll agree to buy a GM vehicle every 4 years from now on…
June 17th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Mr. Lutz,
Your retail distribution network in the US is massive and no longer seems to fit with the market share that you possess.
Since GM is “right sizing” the production side of it’s business is there any plans on the board to reduce the number of dealers or even eliminate one of GM’s many brands? If not, how can your business model be successful at both the franchise level and corporate level?
Also, would you care to comment on a specific timeline for a return to positive cash flow?
June 17th, 2008 at 10:45 am
So exactely what medications are you on and can we increase the dosages?
June 17th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Mr. Lutz: What actual work for GM do you do on a typical working day?
June 17th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Can I be there when the first production Volt rolls off the assembly line, assuming I haven’t died of old age?
(I’m 39.)
June 17th, 2008 at 10:55 am
1) How will you bring your dealership count more in line with your actual market share?
2) How will you streamline/eliminate brands to reflect actual market share? And how will you pay for it?
3) How do the huge corporate expenditures in NASCAR translate to real-world sales?
4) What are the plans for continuous improvement for the Malibu to not just stay competitive, but to make it truly the class of the segment?
5) What are the plans to develop and produce new diesel engines for car/CUV/SUV/truck applications?
6) The G8 has a huge screen in the dash for radio, but no navigation system? WTF?
June 17th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Why bother?
June 17th, 2008 at 11:19 am
About your promise to have a drivable Volt test mule ready by Easter 2008, it just so happens that I brought an egg with me today….
June 17th, 2008 at 11:31 am
With the average American household pulling in about $48,000/year (per wikipedia) and the average american family putting about 50% of said household income into their car purchase, or $24,000, which NON-GM vehicle would you reccomend in that price point? (as in how well do you know your cometeition REALLY?!) Then follow up with ‘now why is your product better?’
OR
Do you realize how many jobs your mistakes have cost? Of course he wouldn’t answer that though would he?
How about something along the lines of outsourcing…and how GM as a company could hire an entire city in Mexico to do his job for less?
June 17th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Bob, you came on board with GM in 2002, and I can’t blame you for what GM has done to Saab. In fact, I suspect you’re behind the attempt to reposition the brand that’s been undertaken since 2002.
Unfortunately, that repositioning literally doesn’t fly anymore - the brand’s been gutted and no longer resembles its origin.
Tell us, what is it about the GM corporate culture which is so totally incapable of getting a brand and delivering strong brand promises to the market. How could GM ever even contemplate turning Saab into a luxury marque, away from its sporty handling and quirky heritage?
June 17th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Back in January, Mr.Lutz declared “If everything goes well in the rest of the world, we can take a couple hits in the U.S. and still be okay.”
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/gm-declares-war-on-its-customers/
Does the announcement of the pending closure of four of GM’s six fullsize truck plants constitute “taking a few hits” or has the situation worsened in your opinion?
———
Last October, Lutz declared “Five years from now there will be one technology leader in the world, and it will be GM.” regarding the Volt. Do you worry that this will be a pyrric victory? Have you considered licencing hybrid technology from Honda or Toyota, as Nissan has done, as a stop-gap measure? (My guess is he’d cringe at the though.)
… Now if only I could find that Lutz quote where he rambles on about the impending death of RWD and V8s.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
How much was your development budget for the last Corvette? How much was your development budget for the last Cobalt?
June 17th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
1.Bob Lutz, according to market needs what category of cars has increased in sales most dramatically?
2. How many compact/subcompact/ small/medium car platforms has Gm ( or any other american car company) developed herself in last 15 years?
3. Bob, I didn`t mean what subsidiaries you called and begged for underpinnings for, but WHAT GODDAMNED floorpans or platforms did YOUR damned GM company ENGINEER by THEIR OWN hands. Fingers, whatever.
4. How come that according to market studies there is place for minivan sales in any company, except GM ( and ford too)?
5. How many months of waiting are left, before last US-engineered platform dies giving way to euro-korean rebadges?
June 17th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
yournamehere
How much was your development budget for the last Corvette? How much was your development budget for the last Cobalt?
Even better, how much was your development budget for the GMT-900s and how much was the development budget for the last Cobalt? Or its replacement?
June 17th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Ouch Frank…ouch! I think it came down to billions for the 900s and the change under the couch for the Cobalt.
My question - if Michael Moore comes knocking for an interview for “Bob and Me,” would you kick him in the nuts or actually answer some questions?
June 17th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Just to clear my name, when I was hanging with Lutz we spent most of the time talking about the Chevy HHR SS.
The rest of it we spent talking about Corvettes.
Though… we did have some fun when a Bondourant driver took a bunch of us around the track in a 15-passenger van. It actually handled pretty well.
And a GM van, as Lutz was quick to point out.
I would just tell to Bob not to change a thing, as he keeps us in business.
June 17th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I like Sajeev’s approach. The real art is asking a question you know the answer to, so that the follow up question is set up to be a real zinger. The “one question” approach just doesn’t do it, and it seems most journalists don’t really get that. If you are going to ask just one question, then ask for information that you really need to inform your audience, not a gotcha.
June 17th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Lutz: Do you know your name sounds a lot like putz?
seriously
I would ask him if I could shadow him for a day/week/month and see how everything really works or doesn’t work inside GM and see if he really does anything all day other than say stupid stuff. Just tell Rick I’m your relative and I can be trusted.
For Rick: I would thank him for the Fiat screwup, since I would be really upset if Alfa was a GM brand. I’m sure it would be the Italian Saab by now under their “leadership”.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Will a GM brand ever be part of F1?
June 17th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
M1EK: “How do you sleep at night?”
Bob: “On top of a huge pile of money with many beautiful ladies.”
June 17th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
“How do you sleep at night?”
Oops, someone beat me to it.
June 17th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Where do you think GM stands to compete?
June 17th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Bob: Could you please honour the CAW/GM Canada agreement,and keep Oshawa Truck open for 3 years.
Oh and that garanteed pension thing,I wouldn’t mind one of them either.
Thanks
Mikey
June 17th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Why does the Porridge Bird lay its eggs in the air?
June 17th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Bobby. Two quick Questions. One, is this what you actually wanted to do in your job at GM or are you making it up as you go along? Two, can you remember the exact point in time when you decided to sell out the hopes and dreams of Millions of employees, shareholders and customers?
I hope you are happy on your planet Bob, it looks like a nice place to visit.
Too harsh?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
“Do you consider yourself stupid, or just plain clueless?”
June 17th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Why are the women in Sweden so much better looking than the women in Canada?
(You said anything.)
June 17th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
My question: How dare you?
June 17th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Were you born morally bankrupt, or was it something you learned?
June 18th, 2008 at 9:14 am
My question - “Does GM have a drug testing policy, and if so, have you passed it, because you’d have to be on some serious dope to think GM is making the best cars out there today.”