Lutz Lost It: Toyota No Longer God

As many of you have probably figured out by now, I’m a firm atheist. You die, you become worm food, and your relatives divide up your estate. Life goes on. However, when I was learning religious education at school, I was told about the many different Gods on offer. We have God, Allah, Buddha (not really a god, but you get the gist), Zeus, Apollo, Thor and loads of others. But at no point did my teacher mention a Japanese car company. Bob Lutz just did.

You guessed it, our favourite near-octogenarian car exec is back with another cracker. Business Week reports that ahead of the March sales figures (and his latest retirement), Bob Lutz was there to stick the boot into Toyota. “We are well ahead of plan and growingly so,” Lutz, 78, said today in an interview at the New York auto show. “Toyota’s God-like status will never be reclaimed.” Lutz also heaped praise on the Chevrolet Equinox “The Equinox is sold out and has a transaction price $5,000 higher than the old Equinox.” Hahaha! Speaking of money: “When we can demonstrate financial success, we will regain the momentum.” and by “momentum” he means “Government can start the IPO and end this investment”. He carried on kicking Toyota: “Toyota will obviously recover, but from now on they’ll just be another one of the guys,” Lutz said. “I don’t think they’ll ever reach the exalted status of the world’s best auto company.”

I wonder if a Toyota ran over his foot when he was younger? Lutz seems to have had it in for Toyota for a while. This is the man who quite happily blamed a Toyota owned supplier for GM’s recall of 1.3 million cars (but when Toyota tried to blame CTS, they were met with scorn). Need more proof? Check out his reason for the Volt. Someone should tell loose-lips-Lulz that there are people who think that GM’s largest stockholder is behind (or at least interested in) the Toyota troubles, and that it’s not the smartest thing to attract attention to it.