GM Car Czar Lutz on Tour Down Under: Keepin' It Rear

by Robert Farago

October 13th, 2007 4:14 PM

gm car czar lutz on tour down under keepin it rear

According to The Age, GM Car Czar Bob Lutz is on a corporate walkabout Down Under, testing the Holden VZ ute (a.k.a. G8 El Camino) and the upcoming Canadian Camaro's Aussie homonym, the new Holden Commodore. Lutz told the paper that the weak US dollar mooted the possibility of importing the VZ ute stateside; which makes you wonder how the Hell GM can afford to sell the Pontiac G8 (a.k.a. Holden VZ Commodore) in the US for sub-$30k AND make a profit. Lutz also discussed his on-going desire to best Germany's propeller people, supported these days by GM's new rear wheel-drive Alpha platform. Lutz said the new Holden-designed Pontiac-branded car would be "equivalent to a BMW 3 Series in ride, steering and handling, although at a much cheaper price." And just in case you thought Lutz doesn't have a sense of humor, the Vice Chair and his people spent some quality time blatting around in an Elfin. The delightfully-named sports car company is owned by Tom Walkinshaw, who also owns Holden Special Vehicles.

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Paul Niedermeyer on Oct 11, 2007

GM claimed the 1980 Citation X-body to be "equivalent to a 3 Series". They've had 27 years to live up (down) to the claim.

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Jonathon on Oct 11, 2007
Oh why on earth did GM decide to import the Holden Ute and call it an “El Camino”? Oh the humanity. Where does it say that they decided to import the Ute? All I see is that Lutz said it doesn't make economic sense to import it right now.

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Dean on Oct 11, 2007

yankinwaoz: where does it say that GM is importing the Ute as an El Camino? [Hint: it doesn't]. RF was merely saving us the trip to the Holden website by telling us that we could picture a Ute by picturing a G8 El Camino.

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Becurb on Oct 11, 2007
rtz : October 10th, 2007 at 7:57 pm Someone at work owns a last gen V8 Firebird. The interior is just disgusting. The headliner is sagging, the sun visors are flat out disgusting looking. The material has separated and is hanging down and the flap on the driver side one is broke and flaps/hangs limp. Hey, my '84 crapalier did this. Nice to see that in 10 years or more GM declined to address this problem. And, these are issues that JDP initial ownership surveys fail to capture, but ARE issues that keep me from entertaining the idea of purchasing another "domestic" offering. Oh, yeah, my Toyota does not have this problem. So, for all you domestic apologists out there that feel it is my obligation to at least look at their new and improved products (no, really!), this is exhibit A as to why I will not do so. GM: 10 years, same problem. Toyota: Never a problem. Bruce

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