You gotta give the guy credit.

We are suffering through the coldest winter in decades,
Localized – average temperatures, worldwide, are rising.

all the ice and more has returned to the Arctic,
To the contrary – there’s never been as dramatic a reduction of the Arctic ice sheet as that experienced now. People are planning supertanker traffic in the Northwest and Northeast passages.

the snow cover is at the greatest level ever
Ask Greenlanders about that one — Bjørn Lomborg shows to variations in the snow cover, but that’s being strongly disputed by more current data.

and all the GW of the last 100 years has been reversed and he states that GW is a bunch of baloney.
Really? Reversed?

Seems to be the only guy willing to state the obvious and without fear of the attack lefty press.

I’m not swallowing the GW mantra in any uncritical fashion. Have still not seen Gore’s presentation, for instance, but probably because I’ve been keeping on top of this through scientific research, and didn’t need the popularized version.
That famous left wing institution The National Geographic seems to disagree with your data points above, though — and I find it mystical that you can believe this …

Some years ago I was present at a meeting where a GM executive was exhorting us to reach for the stars:
“Guys, we gotta move the metal! Gotta get the metal out of the factories, out of the lots, outta here. And I’m going to show you how.”

They might as well have been making nails.

Smith’s quote:

“We’re not in the business of making cars; we’re in the business of making money!”

I imagine he said it with a smug grin on his face.

Fool forgot that it’s the cars that make the money.

Jerome10
“Yet all we hear is people here tearing this guy a new one. Why does he not get the benefit of the doubt? Cause he works for General Motors?”

I believe he hit the proverbial nail right on the head…

I’ll have to repeat this one then. I have, for years, found Lutz completely out of connection with what’s actually going on in the world – and this quote from Newsweek couldn’t sum it up any better.

“I believe strongly that this country has to get off oil,” he says, sitting beside a massive V-16 engine on display in his office. “The electrification of the automobile is inevitable.”

Lutz needs an “Egg on Your Face” award.

Just as a general rule of thumb, auto industry executives should refrain from talking about the “Easter bunny” when discussing their product plans and timing.

If you say a major rival will have egg on its face on a date 4 months out because your product will be doing thus-and-so by that date, your product really ought to do thus-and-so by that date or you risk looking stupid.

And if your rival doesn’t call your product plans “wacky,” don’t say your rival called your plans “wacky.” Using that word tends to associate you with that word.

Put these elements together and you’ve got major comedy potential. Unfortunately, GM is not a comedy club, it’s a car business.

Skooter TTAC is pretty fair in exposing all the executives from other brands stupidity and failures. If Lutz would just shutup and get to work creating these next generation game changers he might not be getting this award. But since he loves to get up and sound stupid A LOT I think he is most deserving of the award in his namesake. I will give him credit for speaking his mind however confused it is most of the time.

Runner-up might be any quote from Pete DeLorenzo regarding GM that involves the words “class-leading” or “turnaround.”

Reality check, please.

I believe he hit the proverbial nail right on the head…

“We don’t focus on the mass affluent, the folks who trade up on occasion or buy a Hermes (?) tie, or add a little extra credit card debt to buy that nice pair of shoes.”

“The super rich, the one half of one percent who control all the wealth in this country, will play a critical role in deciding which luxury brands are going to prosper and which are going to feel the pain. So, it’s easy to sum up. The rich are very rich. And the very rich have lots of money to spend.”

You can just hear the smugness dripping from his voice. Fast forward to about the 7:30 mark to skip the boring sales figure and vehicle introduction bits.

As Dubspeed Driven put it: “This fuggin’ guy is going to start the Bolshevik revolution right here in Cobo Hall!”

(my translation)

What was your result for 1974? A loss of 20 million or 30 million D-mark?

Lutz: I don’t want to talk about how big our loss was.

As a former fighter-pilot and bike enthusiast what do you think of the new Escort?

Lutz: It would go against Ford’s model politics if I tried to connect my sporty hobbies with the Ford brand. I belive the Escort is a calm, sound and fuel efficient car. And the current flow of orders for the new Escort, is practically twice that of the old Escort at its peak.

“I are going to come all over you!!”

“I wanted to avoid a …. chopped up look.”
The Car Connection Apr 2007

Just drop that hatchet and back away slowly Mr. Bangle.

Jerome10: care to tell me what exactly Lutz did for Ford? Last time I read the history books, folks like Trotman, Telnack, Veraldi and Donald Peterson were the guys who put product first and saved the company.

Lutz has been on GM’s payroll for 7+ years, and he’s yet to make a dent in the Import’s growing market share…much less a slam dunk, Sierra-ish, turnaround vehicle during his tenure.

He was head of Ford Europe most of the eighties. The Merkur was a bomb, and the Explorer a no-brainer (a tippy Cherokee imitation).

He wasn’t actively involved in the most interesting Ford eighties products: aero-Fox bodies and Taurus.

Makes me want to run out and buy one!

“Kirk Kerkorian has not been through the design dome,”

“then we would have to take a look at a phase-out. I hope we wouldn’t have to do that. What we’ve got to do is keep the brands we’ve got.”

“The choice is no longer between keeping the same job or keeping the same job at a lower wage, … The choice is now keeping the same job at less compensation or having no jobs at all in this country.”

just a couple gems.

This is how mr. lutz has always operated. He has been the man responsible for some of the best cars in the history of the automobile. He put BMW on the map. He created the superb 80’s Fords. He gave us the Viper. He is doing wonders at GM.

Name me one other auto executive who has had more influence over the entire auto industry than this guy, and at so many different places. Soichiro Honda? Maybe. But not to the degree Bob Lutz has.

Yet all we hear is people here tearing this guy a new one. Why does he not get the benefit of the doubt? Cause he works for General Motors? How about if he were at VW? Or Porsche? Or Toyota?

I’ll have to come back. IIRC, that winkerdorn dude at the head of Porsche has made some pretty boneheaded comments as of late. Same with the VW chair guy (was that 800,000 units per year in the US??). Ferdinand Piech?

The worst thing about Lutz is that, unlike Rick Wagoner, who cannot be expected to have any feelings for a piece of machinery whatsoever, Mr. Lutz has shown that he does have some passion for vehicles in general. Yet he seems so steeped in the Detroit kool-aid that it is marketing and branding that make great vehicles, he is unable to smell crap when they build it.

Might I also suggest a “Solstice” award for the best idea that was pulled too early from the oven?