The interior is also a clone, some parts more than others. If imitation is indeed flattery, VW’s got to be blushing.

Here’s a comparison…. Need I say more.

http://autos.msn.com/research/compare/photocompare.aspx?c=0&n=3&i=0&tb=0&ph1=t107081&ph2=t100133&dt=0&v=t100133&v=t107081&r=1

It’s too bad that the americans are such brand snobs and that VW didn’t dedicate the $$ necessary to properly advertise the Phaeton. Oh, yes and lets not forget that some of VW’s dealers were a little uncomfortable selling a $100,000 car (in the case of the W12).

The Phaeton is still selling quite well in the rest of the world, with a much larger selection of engines than were offered in the USA. The V10 Twin Turbo Diesel will move the car (which weighs in about the same as a Chevy Tahoe) almost as quicky as the the W12.

For 2009, the Phaeton has had a few minor upgrades, but essentially remains unchanged from what was (unsuccessfully) sold here in the USA for the model years 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Maybe if they advertised right…

The Volt and Camaro are so hyped up from last year’s media blitz, you’d think the cars were already out.

You can literally “hear” him smiling as he says his bit about travel. At the end of the part where he talks about the hotels, etc., he even laughs. It’s clear he’s making a point about how much things have changed at GM, and that they’re operating in a new period of austerity.

Spoken words often sound different than written words, by the way.
This case is a good example.

Yes, I’m sure Bob is using the GM check-in counter in Detroit. The cost of that “perk” is born by Northwest, by the way, not GM.

BINGO

That is in fact quite interesting. I have never thougt of that. But of course, somewhere, somehow, some spinmeister must have thought that up. “We don’t have a bad reputation, though there are some issues with a perception gap”. I can’t believe I fell for their newspeak. Incredible…

That’s it, in a bucket. I’ve wanted to buy a Detroit car since the 1986 Taurus – the last time they really reinvented themselves. I always decide to wait another year or two, and another year or two later, I’m always glad that I waited. Where’s the evidence today that GM has changed?

Here’s the situation you face if you buy a GM car today – given the best of circumstances and assuming that GM survives and prospers:

When you go to sell it or trade it in 2012, the market will be flooded with other GM cars of the same age that people bought cheap, and you’ll get nothing for it. Additionally, the new cars from the reinvigorated GM will be so much better that people will be willing to pay more to get one of them rather than the old technology that you’re peddling in your used Buick.

I think I’ll wait another year or two before I consider GM.

Now, if they took that Government money and used it to extend their warranty period for a few additional years….

He probably did less damage to the company doing nothing standing in that line then he has in the past 5 years working hard behind his desk.

I’ve been in a Corporate Jet… They are not about saving time. They are about being pampered and having you butt kissed. I’ve done the business case for a CEO who wanted a private jet. Even at Lutz and Rick Salaries these Jets DO NOT have a positive business case.

Wanna skip the line, fly first class.

I’m sorry Lutz that you feel so “unwashed” now… welcome to the real world.

I disagree… The top execs all should be functioning strategically nearly 100% of the time. They can do that anywhere, from the crapper to the boardroom. If they must fly somewhere quickly, for some kind of crisis management, they have other issues with their organization and flying there won’t help. Wagoner can’t afford to be out of communication for very long but he shouldn’t need to be in any particular place at a moment’s notice, either.

The jet’s a perk, pure and simple. And GM had 7 of them, and they (and Ford’s I do believe) spent a lot of time on leisure travel and commuting duties. That’s not productive.

As far as the executive time thing goes, at Bob’s level it is about leadership and decision making, not about maximizing billable hours. In a crisis, living like the regular folks do and not complaining about it is AN ACT OF LEADERSHIP. Assuming ol’ man Bob has kept pace, he can use his Blackberry to stay in touch and keep providing those best in class decisions he is getting paid to make even while on the road. Sure you have to turn it off in the plane, but that then provides time for reading and introspection outside the office noise …which is also essential to great decision making. Finally, there are excellent networking and intelligence gathering opportunities available from those first class airline seats.

When I started out as a young analyst, it was made very clear to me that you do not waste the time of senior partners who bill out at hundreds of dollars per hour. Any time they’re not doing billable work, they’re effectively costing the company money.

The same applies to executives. When you’re dealing with someone who makes forty thousand dollars a day, you want maximize the amount of time they’re doing useful work. Whether you think Bob Lutz is useful is another topic, but I wouldn’t want my upper management idling.

This is why I have a Blackberry stuffed to the gills with admin tools, two laptops, three WAN cards and enough batteries to power a Prius: I’m paid to crank out work wherever possible. I can reboot half a server room from an airport lounge, and I’m paid less money in a whole year than Rick Wagoner makes in two days. I’d expect the same of someone like Wagoner or Bob Lutz: that they’re given the opportunity to earn their compensation.

Again, the point isn’t whether they’re worth it, or if you’re actually better off keeping a loose cannon like Lutz as inactive as possible, it’s that his time does cost money.

If GM is relying on him to turn them around, they ought to also be preparing for Chapter 11.

They should make him rent cars, too. Maybe then he’d understand a little bit about how undesirable the rental fleets make their cars look, or how poorly they age when driven by a different person every other day.

Regrettably, he is right. I am somewhat willing to give the Big 2.8 a chance, as I do believe they have improved. But I have to reconcile the value of their recent models with a lot of bad memories. Most people don’t bother. Their list of target cars never extends as far as the north american brands (unless they are looking for high performance in which case the ‘Vette is usually a candidate).

The more he talks, the more he reinforces those opinions. Not helping.

Improve reliability on all (not just some, all) of their vehicles until the pages in Consumer Reports reliability report for Chevy and Pontiac and Caddy and Buick and Hummer and GMC and Saab and Saturn are seas of little red circles like the pages for Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Acura, and Subaru are.

Wait five to ten years.

Problem solved.

Of course, they don’t have five or ten years and don’t know how to build cars as reliabile as Honda/Toyota/Subaru, so there is no solution. At all.

Why doesn’t Bob fly his Alfa trainer jet wherever he needs to go? Put some hours in his logbook, that should do the trick.

GM really, really doesn’t need Lutz.

This holds true as long as the highly paid person isn’t going to Washington to beg for taxpayer money. Get real. An occasional exposure to how the other half lives can only improve things for our privileged classes.

Yup. And also as long as the highly paid exec is worth what he’s paid. If he’s running his company into the ground, I don’t see the point of giving him MORE time to do that.

It doesn’t work that way. If they can’t afford the extra time to have an exec traveling commercial, then don’t send him on the trip in the first place or he has delegation issues.

When you’re in that type of position, there is a hierarchy of minions running around doing the minute by minute work. You usually have a personal assistant as well. You get paid for directing the minions and making the big decisions. At that level, if his staff can’t live without him for the time it takes to get on the plane, he needs new staff.