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Meet Bob Lutz – The Man That Could Have Saved GM

The only Ford I would ever consider buying is the Mustang. This is because Ford has yet to build a rival to the best car they ever built. Here’s an excerpt of a great article from the Washington Post on how the Volt (a car that can only go 40 miles and will cost $40K) came to be. And why it spells the end for GM.

Bob Lutz , an executive who probably is not long for Government Motors, gets it.

Bob was forced to introduce the Volt – not because he believes it’s what we want, but because it’s what the government and the environmentalists want. (Note that hybrid sales have plummeted.)

GM is ready with the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS with a V-8 engine.

With an estimated 25 miles per gallon on the highway, the 400-plus-horsepower Camaro SS is another Bob Lutz car, a monument to Lutz’s and GM’s enduring hope that even as the company struggles to escape bankruptcy as a smaller, leaner producer of fuel-efficient vehicles, the glory days can somehow be resurrected.

“Sexy with charisma,” is how Lutz recently described the Camaro. “Some people don’t care for those kinds of descriptions today — it’s a different time,” says Lutz, who drives a gas-thirsty 2009 Corvette, a dream car of muscle lovers. “But we have new vehicles, too. We have the Volt. We are committed to the electrification of the automobile. We know this is the time.” (Sure.. job security.)

“In time, the government is going to legislate out of existence cars like the Camaro, the Corvette, the Cadillac CTS — all these acclaimed vehicles that have lately gotten rave reviews from the automotive press around the world,” he predicts. “So, ultimately, we are driven by legislation into the kind of excitement provided by the Volt.”

If you were to believe that Lutz commissioned the Volt because he thinks the environment needs to be saved from carbon dioxide emissions, or that the United States has a moral obligation to lead a greening of the planet, you would be wrong. “If you look at most of the mainstream media, you get the impression that 95 percent of Americans today want a vehicle like the Chevrolet Volt or a [hybrid such as the] Toyota Prius,” says Lutz. “And that, by God, the reason General Motors is in trouble, is that we have not offered a vehicle like that. But when you look at the reality, at today’s fuel prices, most Americans still want a conventional car.”

Why the Volt then? “Because it is an important symbol. We need it. It has a chance to change our image,” he says. (And Congress made them do it.)

As GM’s situation has become increasingly dire, and interested parties from President Obama to shareholders have demanded that the company start making more fuel-efficient cars, GM has pointed to the Volt as evidence of its changing ways. But the values that have long shaped this iconic company are deeply held, especially the passion for pushing the envelope of automobile performance and power. In many ways, the Volt, and GM’s subtle shift from old design priorities, represent a contradiction of those values.

“I just think GM is focusing on the wrong thing,” says Daniel Roos, an engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies the automobile industry. “The quality of its cars was horrible in the ’70s and ’80s, but it’s much better now. It has world-class vehicles: the Malibu and the Cadillac CTS. They should be [promoting] those and capitalizing on their strengths.”

A car is not an appliance, he says. A car is not a washing machine — the proof of which is that people do not lust after their washing machines. They lust after a beautiful car, he says. If you want reliable, go get yourself a refrigerator. A gorgeous car, he says, is an expression of power and yearning, especially for owners who hope the vehicles will inject excitement and romance into their otherwise mundane lives. “Show me a washing machine that can do that,” he says.

Lutz saw that driving a Prius constituted nothing less than a values statement for many of its owners, a means to bask in the perception of their own enlightenment. Even more alarming, thought Lutz, was that some consumers not enamored of the Prius itself nonetheless saw its existence as proof of Toyota’s wisdom. The Prius’s presence alone was drawing people to Toyota lots, where the curious bought everything from bigger sedans to sport-utility vehicles and trucks with about the same gas mileage as their GM counterparts, groused Lutz. Part of what he called the “halo effect.”

No matter how we twist the numbers, we were going to lose a couple of hundred million dollars a year,” Lutz recalls. “And Rick Wagoner quite rightly, along with the finance people, said, ‘We can’t do that. We can’t go to the board of directors and come up with a program [for hybrids] costing the bigger portion of a billion dollars and when the board of directors [asks] why are we doing this, we say, ‘Well, we’re going to lose money on it, but, well, we’re doing it to show that General Motors is technologically advanced and environmentally aware.‘ You know, back then, that wasn’t going to receive a very warm welcome.”

Which brings us to today…

Nutball environmentalists are dead-serious about their silly global warming theories and feel a primal need to assuage their guilt and show others how self-righteous they are. It is all about pushing buyers’ buttons. His buttons, and those of a majority of Americans, are pushed by big, powerful cars and trucks, the essence of America on four wheels. But ignoring the nutballs cost them their company.

Capitalists don’t have the luxury of ignoring part of their potential customer base, because in a Capitalist society, you can be sure your competition will embrace them.

Too bad they didn’t get the Camero out earlier – it could have been the mini-van for GM.

What would you rather buy – The Camero or the instantly obsolete 40-mile Volt?

Not that it matters: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 43% of current GM owners are not likely to buy another GM car, while 16% are not sure.

Democrats who own GM cars are somewhat more likely than others to buy their next car from GM…