<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="90%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=text18 vAlign=top colSpan=2>The world according to Bob... part one</TD></TR><TR><TD class=text11 align=left></TD><TD class=text11 align=right>by: Mike Rutherford</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=text10black width="100%" bgColor=#cddbeb>Bob A. Lutz, vice-president of General Motors</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
I've only ever met two people who have strong opinions about anything and everything while never, ever knowing what it's like to be lost for words. Both are tall, broad-shouldered, somewhat intimidating men in the motor business.
One is Jeremy Clarkson. The other is General Motors vice-president Robert A Lutz.
Lutz is a man of strong opinions. How strong? Well, let's start with the war in Iraq and Arthur Scargill.
Lutz says he's not close enough to the conflict in the Middle East to have definitive views on the subject. But...
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=text10black width="100%" bgColor=#cddbeb>Apparently, Bob doesn't have definitive views on the conflict in the Middle East...</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>'The insurgents are the wackos from all over the Arab world. I mean, they're just sucking in all the crazies. I think it's kinda nice to have them all in one place. No, seriously... There was one report from the Marine Corps which I love. A colonel was walking the line, talking to the men, and asking them how things are going. The sarge reported that it's going great because they [the insurgents] can't wait to die and the US Military can't wait to kill 'em.'
His views on the UK and its most notorious union leader are equally intriguing and controversial.
'I mean, Britain's been slapped around for the last 30 years, you know, what with Arthur Scargill, the striking miners, Ford's gonna close Halewood and so on and so forth. So Britain is used to being in constant economic turmoil. Remember all the bloody-mindedness of the unions before we got Margaret Thatcher on board?
'But Britain is now the sort of country that's sort of gotten its act together. It's nicely attuned to the new realities of the world after losing its indigenous motor industry, such as the Rootes Groups and the British Leylands. They're all gone.'
And so, he reminds me, is Rover. I optimistically ask Lutz if GM had considered buying the deeply troubled Midlands firm when it was recently up for grabs?
'No thank you. It's with the Chinese now and, frankly, it was a headache we at GM just didn't need. Right now we have priorities other than buying automobile companies.'
I guess that a hard-nosed, global auto industry guy working for the largest motor manufacturer on the planet is about to tell me that in the big, bad, highly competitive world of countless manufacturers, car buyers wouldn't even notice, never mind care that Rover has gone. But his comments on the subject pleasantly surprise me.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=text10black width="100%" bgColor=#cddbeb>Bob is a lifelong MG fan, and has owned a MGA</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>'I'd shed a tear for Rover because I like Rover cars. I've always liked them. To me it was the secret British brand that non-posers bought into. You could argue that a Jaguar was a bit more ostentatious, but a Rover 3-litre was a truly elegant, high-quality, best-of-British car.
'And, of course, I'm a lifelong MG fan, having owned numerous TAs, TBs, TCs and MGAs.'
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=text10black width="100%" bgColor=#cddbeb>MG: Lutz could be persuaded to lead a buyout</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Like the man said, the giant corporation that currently employs him as its vice-chairman of global product development simply doesn't want or need - and can't afford - yet another new marque. But if the MG brand came up for grabs on its own, without Rover, might there then be interest in an acquisition? Lutz doesn't hesitate but chooses his words very, very carefully.
'Er, it would interest me personally, not professionally. After I retire from General Motors I could be persuaded to lead a buyout.'
It's impossible to gauge whether he's being entirely serious. But I give him ample opportunity to modify, withdraw or laugh off his intriguing comment: he doesn't.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=text10black width="100%" bgColor=#cddbeb>With his piles of cash, Bob bought this plane</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Neither does he deny that he has made an extraordinary pile of cash for himself by working at the highest level for BMW, Ford, Chrysler and GM over several lucrative decades. (Being employed in the boardrooms of US auto corporations is said to be as profitable as acting in Hollywood - only the work's more regular.)
And when he talks about retirement from GM, he knows it surely cannot be too far away. After all, he was born in 1932. But he's 74 going on 47 and still has plenty of time, energy, enthusiasm - and money - to invest in the MG brand he openly admits he's a great and long-term fan of.
But for the time being at least, he's staying with GM and concentrating solely on his huge portfolio of companies and their products. Products such as Vauxhall and the Astra.
'I think the newest generation of Vauxhalls, such as the Astra, are sensational and will be highly reliable and extremely durable.'
He's already proved that he's prepared to dump certain badges. GM's South Korean-built Daewoo products, for example, are now Chevrolets in most parts of the world. So does he still need the Vauxhall marque?
'Well, we do and we don't. If you could wave the magic wand and bring it all under one brand - let's say, Opel - without a short-term dramatic increase in sales I think we'd do it because it makes all the sense in the world. But, for the time being, we just don't see any reason to do so.
'And although the value of the Vauxhall brand in the UK is not as good as I would like it to be and not as good as it was a decade-and-a-half to two decades ago, I think that with continued strong, interesting products of very high quality that are great fun to drive, that can always come back to us.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=text10black width="100%" bgColor=#cddbeb>Could Vauxhall become Opel?</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>'And without doubt, Britain today is a better place to make things than Germany is. Germany is tougher than Britain. Germany, as used to success as they have been over the last 40-50 years are having a real problem as a country dealing with the new reality.
'Everything got bigger and better. The German manufacturers were wondering how anybody could challenge them. Now, all of a sudden, the whole thing is starting to crumble and they literally don't know how to deal with it. And that's the tricky part.'
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=text10black width="100%" bgColor=#cddbeb>Dodge Viper: an excellent car for its time</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
GM also has huge problems of its own, which Lutz acknowledges. But, understandably, he's keener to talk about more positive, product-related developments.
I step out of the latest Corvette and he informs me that I've just been driving the best sports car in the world. A little cheekily, I remind him that he said the very same thing to me a decade or so ago when he was at Chrysler and I climbed out from behind the wheel of his Dodge Viper.
'At the time I said that about Viper, it was a legitimate thing to say, because that car was the best back then. The first generation Viper, for its time, was an excellent car. Personally, I think it has now gone sideways in terms of styling, ride and handling: it follows ruts in the road much too much and it's really a very difficult car to drive now.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=text10black width="100%" bgColor=#cddbeb>"Corvettes have lost their open shirt and gold chain image"</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>'Corvette is dead easy to drive and has a better power-to-weight ratio. The Z06 version is the absolute killer car. I think it's going to boggle minds when people drive that thing with its aluminium chassis, carbon fibre body panels and all. So yeah, Corvette is a solid hit.'
But in Europe at least, a Corvette is not necessarily the wisest investment because it tends to depreciate in value comparatively heavily, doesn't it Bob?
'That could be the case, although residuals are really a function of how desirable a new car is. And the Z06, for example, is highly desirable. As somebody pointed out, Corvettes have lost their open silk shirt and gold chain image. It's now much more of a legitimate sports car. As long as we can maintain very good demand for the new cars, there should be no problems with residuals."
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=text10black width="100%" bgColor=#cddbeb>Is this Buick Lucerne really as well put together...</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Apart from looking good, driving well and retaining their values, GM's global products are built to world-class standards, Lutz insists. He even goes as far as comparing the build quality of some of his cars with the best-made vehicles on the planet.
'We match Toyota actually. We actually match Toyota. And the goal is to go beyond Toyota.'
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=text10black width="100%" bgColor=#cddbeb>...as this Toyota Yaris?</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Hold on. Is Robert A Lutz, really saying he believes deep down that GM cars such as, say, Opels and Vauxhalls produced in Europe are screwed together as well as Japanese Toyotas?
"Yeah I do. I do now. I would even say that's true of our vehicles built in the United States. If you want, I'll take you to see a Buick up close - and I challenge you to show me a Lexus/Toyota or an Acura/Honda or an Infiniti/Nissan with tighter body gaps and flanges, better interior fittings, sheet metal quality and so forth."
He's ecstatically happy about what he regards as huge improvements in GM build quality and, because he's a realist, he continues to accept that his Japanese rivals are still very good at what they do. Then there are the Germans.
But we'll keep you waiting until later this week for that, plus his views on China, how GM can heal itself and why automotive technology has gone too far.
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I've only ever met two people who have strong opinions about anything and everything while never, ever knowing what it's like to be lost for words. Both are tall, broad-shouldered, somewhat intimidating men in the motor business.
One is Jeremy Clarkson. The other is General Motors vice-president Robert A Lutz.
Lutz is a man of strong opinions. How strong? Well, let's start with the war in Iraq and Arthur Scargill.
Lutz says he's not close enough to the conflict in the Middle East to have definitive views on the subject. But...
<TABLE class=featuretopimage cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width=175 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>
His views on the UK and its most notorious union leader are equally intriguing and controversial.
'I mean, Britain's been slapped around for the last 30 years, you know, what with Arthur Scargill, the striking miners, Ford's gonna close Halewood and so on and so forth. So Britain is used to being in constant economic turmoil. Remember all the bloody-mindedness of the unions before we got Margaret Thatcher on board?
'But Britain is now the sort of country that's sort of gotten its act together. It's nicely attuned to the new realities of the world after losing its indigenous motor industry, such as the Rootes Groups and the British Leylands. They're all gone.'
And so, he reminds me, is Rover. I optimistically ask Lutz if GM had considered buying the deeply troubled Midlands firm when it was recently up for grabs?
'No thank you. It's with the Chinese now and, frankly, it was a headache we at GM just didn't need. Right now we have priorities other than buying automobile companies.'
I guess that a hard-nosed, global auto industry guy working for the largest motor manufacturer on the planet is about to tell me that in the big, bad, highly competitive world of countless manufacturers, car buyers wouldn't even notice, never mind care that Rover has gone. But his comments on the subject pleasantly surprise me.
<TABLE class=featuretopimage cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width=175 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>
'And, of course, I'm a lifelong MG fan, having owned numerous TAs, TBs, TCs and MGAs.'
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Like the man said, the giant corporation that currently employs him as its vice-chairman of global product development simply doesn't want or need - and can't afford - yet another new marque. But if the MG brand came up for grabs on its own, without Rover, might there then be interest in an acquisition? Lutz doesn't hesitate but chooses his words very, very carefully.
'Er, it would interest me personally, not professionally. After I retire from General Motors I could be persuaded to lead a buyout.'
It's impossible to gauge whether he's being entirely serious. But I give him ample opportunity to modify, withdraw or laugh off his intriguing comment: he doesn't.
<TABLE class=featuretopimage cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width=175 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>
And when he talks about retirement from GM, he knows it surely cannot be too far away. After all, he was born in 1932. But he's 74 going on 47 and still has plenty of time, energy, enthusiasm - and money - to invest in the MG brand he openly admits he's a great and long-term fan of.
But for the time being at least, he's staying with GM and concentrating solely on his huge portfolio of companies and their products. Products such as Vauxhall and the Astra.
'I think the newest generation of Vauxhalls, such as the Astra, are sensational and will be highly reliable and extremely durable.'
He's already proved that he's prepared to dump certain badges. GM's South Korean-built Daewoo products, for example, are now Chevrolets in most parts of the world. So does he still need the Vauxhall marque?
'Well, we do and we don't. If you could wave the magic wand and bring it all under one brand - let's say, Opel - without a short-term dramatic increase in sales I think we'd do it because it makes all the sense in the world. But, for the time being, we just don't see any reason to do so.
'And although the value of the Vauxhall brand in the UK is not as good as I would like it to be and not as good as it was a decade-and-a-half to two decades ago, I think that with continued strong, interesting products of very high quality that are great fun to drive, that can always come back to us.
<TABLE class=featuretopimage cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width=175 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>
'Everything got bigger and better. The German manufacturers were wondering how anybody could challenge them. Now, all of a sudden, the whole thing is starting to crumble and they literally don't know how to deal with it. And that's the tricky part.'
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="90%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=text12><TABLE class=featuretopimage cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width=175 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>
GM also has huge problems of its own, which Lutz acknowledges. But, understandably, he's keener to talk about more positive, product-related developments.
I step out of the latest Corvette and he informs me that I've just been driving the best sports car in the world. A little cheekily, I remind him that he said the very same thing to me a decade or so ago when he was at Chrysler and I climbed out from behind the wheel of his Dodge Viper.
'At the time I said that about Viper, it was a legitimate thing to say, because that car was the best back then. The first generation Viper, for its time, was an excellent car. Personally, I think it has now gone sideways in terms of styling, ride and handling: it follows ruts in the road much too much and it's really a very difficult car to drive now.
<TABLE class=featuretopimage cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width=175 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>
But in Europe at least, a Corvette is not necessarily the wisest investment because it tends to depreciate in value comparatively heavily, doesn't it Bob?
'That could be the case, although residuals are really a function of how desirable a new car is. And the Z06, for example, is highly desirable. As somebody pointed out, Corvettes have lost their open silk shirt and gold chain image. It's now much more of a legitimate sports car. As long as we can maintain very good demand for the new cars, there should be no problems with residuals."
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="90%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=text12><TABLE class=featuretopimage cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width=175 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>
Apart from looking good, driving well and retaining their values, GM's global products are built to world-class standards, Lutz insists. He even goes as far as comparing the build quality of some of his cars with the best-made vehicles on the planet.
'We match Toyota actually. We actually match Toyota. And the goal is to go beyond Toyota.'
<TABLE class=featuretopimage cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width=175 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>
"Yeah I do. I do now. I would even say that's true of our vehicles built in the United States. If you want, I'll take you to see a Buick up close - and I challenge you to show me a Lexus/Toyota or an Acura/Honda or an Infiniti/Nissan with tighter body gaps and flanges, better interior fittings, sheet metal quality and so forth."
He's ecstatically happy about what he regards as huge improvements in GM build quality and, because he's a realist, he continues to accept that his Japanese rivals are still very good at what they do. Then there are the Germans.
But we'll keep you waiting until later this week for that, plus his views on China, how GM can heal itself and why automotive technology has gone too far.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="90%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=text12></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
