When Maximum Men Meet Minimum Times
Bob Lutz rode to Motown greatness on a wave of bombast, charisma and general maximum-ness. And his ability to act like Patton in full advance, even in the face of dismal business results, has been crucial to GM’s several year long “product revolution” denial offensive. But when the war is over, and the other general’s are already discussing the terms of surrender, men like Bob Lutz are suddenly seen less as inspirational figures and more as, well, liabilities. Buried in an otherwise unremarkable piece on the LA Auto Show in MSNBC, we get a little taste of just how minimum things are at GM right now. Global Insight analyst Rebecca Lindland reveals that GM won’t be sending the man of maximum to LA to launch the new CTS Coupe. “The perception of Cadillac is of excess; it’s a high-profile, low volume vehicle and not the type of vehicle you want to be seen flaunting right now,” she said. “And you can’t take a chance that the media will catch Bob Lutz swilling Champagne or puffing on a cigar — it’s a PR nightmare waiting to happen.” Just wait till you see the post-bailout spa bills.
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If congress approves a bailout, there should be gag-order on Bobs along with compensation caps of executives.
more shrill braying from Lindland. she used to gush like Old Faithful on how he (Lutz) was going to play THE role in 'product' being the savior at GM.
my, how times have changed. Usually one could listed to Ms. Lindland gush over how great "Bob" was and the "great job" he was doing at "the tubes" to turn around GM. Guess what? game over!!
By any standard, the CTS is a very good car. GM doesn't need to apologize to anyone for building it. According to all the reviews, the Pontiac GTO was a pretty good car. My principal objection to it was its large size. (I have the same complaint about the CTS and BMS 5 series.)