Bob Lutz admitted in his book Guts that he “possesses a certain duality of mind,” and he ain’t kidding. After all, how could someone spend a career in an industry built on “the industrial logic of scale” (to borrow a phrase from Sergio Marchionne) while trying to connect new vehicles with the lust centers of the human brain without developing a certain amount of creative schizophrenia? But, as anyone who has ever driven a Pontiac Solstice knows, sometimes compromises are made between the conflicting pulls of lust and practicality… and when those compromises must be made, Lutz tends to err on the side of lust. I confronted him about this tendency in our recent conversation, and rather than accept the criticism, he doubled down on his premise that lust-worthy design is more important than practicality. And he illustrated his point by telling the tale of a long-forgotten concept and its troubled path to production.
Tagged as bob lutz, Concepts, Design, development, Enthusiasm, Heritage, History, Practicality
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Geekcarlover - Wait. Using photographs of animals is abuse? I’m thinking of those captioned kitties all over the interwebs. Oh, the humanity!
golden2husky - You know, other than a few outspoken people on this site, the vast majority of America has moved to the next thing a long time ago. Those folks open minded enough...
AFX - This is one of those stories that leaves me wondering why some people find certain cars attractive. I remember the 300M when it first came out, and I never paid that much attention...
Kevin Jaeger - That’s deep – you’re saying Bertel thinks there’s a wall of criticism about to be unleashed on him, and this...
Tomifobia - The Shadow / Sundance twins immediately come to mind.
th009 - The Passat, Golf and Scirocco were all Giugiaro designs. The Jetta was adapted from the Giugiaro original by VW’s in-house design team. The...
Volt 230 - My 86 had a vibration since it was new starting at 70mph, took it in several times, had wheels balanced on car, nothing worked, finally just decided...
Summicron - “intended for the proletariat” He’s right. I’m a prole and I love hatches. But our ’08 Rio5 has nary a rattle...
jeffzekas - My oldest son owned a Jetta- broke down constantly. But, it WAS very stylish! Perhaps I am one of the few people who thought the Manta was...
Maintainer - Amazing story. Never underestimate “Nerd Rage”. It doesn’t take much to trigger it.