bobby

Bob Lutz to step down as product chief at General Motors
By DALE JEWETT

Bob Lutz is stepping down as General Motors' vice chairman and global product chief, the automaker said Monday. Tom Stephens will be GM's new head of global product development.

Lutz, a noted car collector who turns 77 on Feb. 12, has been at GM since Sept. 1, 2001.

Lutz was hired by GM Chairman Rick Wagoner to inject passion and style into GM's product lineup. The automaker had been widely criticized for building vehicles with bland exterior styling and interiors covered in cheap-looking plastic.

Lutz arrived and questioned everything about GM--its products, its hierarchy and its product development strategy.

Lutz's first shot in turning GM's product lineup around was the surprise introduction of the Pontiac Solstice roadster at the 2002 Detroit auto show. Lutz had ordered the concept built soon after joining GM--and the concept when from initial sketch to drivable vehicle in less than four months.

There have been several other landmark vehicles during Lutz's tenure. Among them: the Cadillac Sixteen concept, the revival of the Pontiac GTO and the Chevrolet Malibu, which was named the 2008 North American Car of the Year.

Lutz's automotive career also includes stops at Ford Motor Co., BMW and Chrysler. He left Chrysler after retiring Chairman Lee Iacocca picked GM executive Bob Eaton for the top job.

After leaving Chrysler, Lutz served as CEO of battery maker Exide Technologies from 1998 to 2002


xoxoxoo

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Plan9

Sounds like he's jumping ship for a good reason. One man can't fix that kinda epic marketing fail. Just look at any Cavalier from any year. I'll never buy another GM vehicle. That and the awesome materials fail that lead me to receive a warning, "By the way, the cylinder heads in your Chevy pickup? The metal is too soft and will eventually fail on you... it'll cost one of your testicles to replace 'em." That's nice to hear about my two year old truck.

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Xerxys

Dang' The bastard lived ... is living a healthy life!!! How exactly do you become a CEO of four companies in your lifetime?

Cynthetiq

but the solstice was an opel... just rebadged to be a saturn, okay a few small modifications... fascia and backend. but the rest is all euro engineering.

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powerclown

It always amused me how GM thought they could find passion, style and cutting-edge design from a 77 year-old guy. Now they think they'll find it with an engine and tranny guy. There is a world class design school in downtown Detroit that has churned out some pretty creative car designers. Whatever happened to designers actually designing cars?

Bear Cub

Lutz knew what he was doing. Unfortunately, nobody's wanted to listen to him for 40 years.

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ASU2003

I thought the Sky was Saturn's take on the Opel platform? Anyways, the Sky looks a lot better than the Solstice.

Cynthetiq

oh yeah.. forgot about that one too....

BOTH those are just basic refreshes. IMO he didn't do anything mindblowing, maybe just keeping the Corvette alive... but again, he just stamped it, he didn't help save it.

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Ilow

Well, i'm guessing that if you're CEO, then you probably do more than stamp when the company decides to build a 6-figure, blown Vette that does 0-60 faster than any Ferrari or Lambo you can get in the States...

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laconic1

Actually the Kappa platform was designed for the Solstice. I think the Sky and GT were created to make the platform more economically viable. GM Kappa platform - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think Bob Lutz did a lot of good for GM. No he didn't do anything knock your socks off mindblowing, but he did help get rid of all the ridiculous body cladding, and now the interiors are getting away from that awful dark gray plastic that was used for so long in all those Blazers and Cavaliers. I think GM would be in even worse shape if he hadn't come onboard back in '01. Just think of the '01 Aztek and '01 Avalanche, now look at a '09 Avalanche and a '09 Buick Enclave or GMC Acadia to see the improvement.

Now that the style end of things has gone from ugly to acceptable GM just needs to find a quality guru to make vehicles that last without having steering intermediate shafts, oil cooler lines, wheel bearings, fuel pumps, water pumps, intake manifold gaskets, instrument clusters, window regulators, cylinder heads, ignition lock cylinders, front differential axle seals, transfer case output seals, transfer case encoder motors, among other things going out all the time.

Spyder_Venom

Woah, I must have been sleeping and missed this one. Bob has been instrumental in the development of the coolest cars GM has produced in the past decade (although really we're only talking about 4-5 cars but still).

I'm curious to see what he does now - a guy like that I don't think can sit still.

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Tech

i wonder if his leaving has anything to do with the fact that he was so stoked on the Volt (as was i...) at first when it was this...


and GM ultimately decided to make it into one more plain f*ckin turd-sedan...


i know that from concept to production cars often get tweaked a little, but other than having 4 wheels, that's a WHOLE different car. different style, different purpose, different feel, different purpose. if i want a boring car that happens to be good on the environment, i'll just buy a prius like everyone else *yawn*

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