Bob Lutz Speaks and Speaks and Speaks and Speaks and Speaks
July 11th, 2009 2:11 PM
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Ex-Car Czar Bob Lutz has made the jump to hyperspace, joining New GM as . . . Car Czar. Of course, Bob can’t quite leave the Old School behind. More specifically, in keeping with CEO Fritz Henderson’s obsession with speed, he’s pre-pared excuses for failure on the forecourt. “There will have to be some form of economic recovery before any automobile company can hope to be profitable,” Lutz tells NPR. Perception gap much? Of course. All things considered, where’s the reinvention here?
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Chuck: +1 Update: A step in that direction: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D99BQT600.htm Kinda a half step but still.
Let me get this straight. 1. RF spends time with his family, playing badmitton with his daughter. 2. Lutz returns to GM. There has to be a connection, some kind of a deal. After all, TTAC needs Lutz, as the subject of more hilarious articles, more than GM needs Lutz. I smell a rat. Bob Elton
vento97 As Eddy said, Lutz is probably taking this job simply to keep his jets fueled. He may have zero real power (save keeping the press corps entertained). And, lest we forget, ex-CEO Rick Wagoner is still on GM's payroll. His $20 million pension is currently the source of much angst and, most probably, negotiation. As I've reported before, Wagoner's pension payout puts the Presidential Task Force on Automobiles between a rock and a hard place. If they don't pay him something approaching his twenty, the man knows where ALL the bodies are buried. If they do, Obama's ownership will look like fat cat's paradise. A fate so horrible they're creating a Pay Czar, of all things. Look for GM to try and slip this one under the radar on a busy news day. And keep your eyes on Lutz. Will the Pontiac G8 get the promised reprieve as a Caprice? If it doesn't, well, that tells you that he's just a well-paid (how much?) figurehead. And TTAC is there.