Quote Of The Day: Leave Those Kids Alone Edition
I actually think right now is the best time to pursue an automotive career because all of the domestic automobile companies have been through the cleansing fire of sharp retraction — getting ourselves competitive on wage cost, reducing capacity, getting rid of excess people and so forth … the UAW concessions on wages … etc. I see a genuine resurgence for the U.S. automobile companies, especially General Motors. So I think it’s a very good time to pursue a career.
Maximum Bob Lutz gives Northwood University students some of the worst career advice in recorded history [via MLive]. But to be fair, Lutz can imagine at least one scenario in which GM won’t regain its former glory…
Nobody has a decent crystal ball, and we could have [to downsize further]. … What if Iran launches a nuke and we get into a war with Iran and the economy goes in the toilet again? So, nobody knows about these things, but assuming what most people see as the way forward — and most economists — they would say that we’ve bottomed and we are on the way back up.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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I'm re-paraphrasing Lutz's quote to what I think it should be "Because of the obtuse and ignorant management by GM (and our Detroit rivals) and myself as the act first, think second maverick I am - that we've run these companies into the ground and fired a lot of good people (when we really should have fired ourselves for extremely poor performance and lack of any accountability for inability to run a company) - so we have room to rehire some people we think b/c the gov't gave us free money we could use as more rebates. When I see Lutz I think of what sound a vinegar and water truck would make if they collided. Douche.
leslie Nielsen? Looks like him. Sounds like him.
Cigar? Oh... Looked like a cutoff leaf rake handle to me... VBG! Perhaps Lutz walks and talks with a swagger but is as much of the apathetic GM establishment as the rest of them???
I give him 10 points for smoking cigars. He turned Chrysler around by saving it from K car hell. I liked what he did for GM - vastly improved the product during his tenure. He started with garbage, and now GM is competitive.