Check this new book out. Bob covers a little lead up history and then covers his time at GM on what is right and what was wrong. This book should help those still at GM trying to carry on the changes he made.

There is some mention of a need for a PT Cruzier vehicle and he note a little on the HHR as a no brainer that he had to force throgh to get built.

This is a book I think many here will learn how GM really got into the mess and how they are still working to get to where they need to be.

Many present GM people contributed to this book and I expect they did so to keep the change in the company moving forward.

 

I watched an interview with Bob Lutz about his book last week. It seemed to me that without him the HHR never stood a chance of being built. He gets the whole idea about building cool cars that people want. Hopefully his influence will stick around going forward.

 

I guess he wont be a sponsor at out Tomms Farm g2g in November?

 

He tells how he wanted to do the HHR and GM wanted to do a big study to see if this was the right choice of product. He told them we already have a Cobalt Coupe and Sedan what else could you do? He pointed out the PT had the market to itself and GM should own some of it.

The HHR took little investment and strong sales made GM a good profit.

He states GM has many very smart people working for them but they lack good common sense or judgment to make the right call with out making a big project out of it.

 

Waiting for the book to arrive eagerly and the interview was typical Lutz, no punches pulled. I think that when the era of the "Big Men" at GM ended with the retirement of Harley Earl and the departure of Bill Mitchell in the early 70's, you saw a company being governed by bean counters and market researchers. Its still the case today, the days of a charismatic leader like Lutz will probably never come around again, the cars are nice and getting nicer in the case of the Cadillac brand....but will GM ever have another "WOW" car like the '63 Corvette or '55 Bel Air...probably not.

 

Actually Jay, Bob retired last year before Tom's Farm but left a legacy for us with the regional GM and Chevrolet managers and they sponsored us last year and have already committed to this years event.

 

I would not count GM out. Bob put some people in place that like Wellborn, Nesbitt and Reuss to carry on his plans. Many of the people he chose also helped with this book which says something. In the past any GM ranking employee would have feared his name used in a book like this. Even retired they would have not spoken out.

Then new Cadillac CTS coupe and Camaro are only two of the new cars that are bringing back the wow. I think you will be suprised at the C7 and the already in the works C8 as some dramatic changes are coming.

Think of the new Stigray show car today as the guide for the C7 as the old Stingray was for the 63. I saw it in person and photo's just capture the real look. It is stunning.

GM has money now and knows they need to build cars better than they have. Those who used to fight this are now in the minority.

 

Don't overlook Nesbitt being demoted to China, yes he's head of the Chinese design bureau and the cars for the Chinese market will be unique now, but its still a form of exile. Now that trucks are such a large share of the market, the old "Siberia" that was the Truck & Bus Division is now China or East Asia....no more punishment of out of favor executives by sending them to work on pick up trucks.

 

I'll have to hunt down a copy. Could be an interesting read. Also take a look at Lee Iacocca's books. Very eye opening and candid viewpoint of the US auto industry, foreign competition, pencil pushers, and the UAW. The interesting part of his first book is that he takes partial blame for the direction the US manufacturers took in the '60s and '70s.

Really? The Camaro ZL1 and the CTSv (Wagon!!!) aren't WOW enough for you? Keep in mind that in the '50s & '60s, competition was really only Chrysler and Ford (yes, there were others, but that's like saying Subaru and Mazda are real competition today). So it wasn't real hard to wow the automotive press and the customers back then. Today they have to compete against Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Ford, Chrysler, BMW, and Mercedes. Dozens of models as opposed to what you can count on one hand. That level of competition forces every company to stick with tried and true daily drivers to make money and keep the investors happy. Thus making it much harder to design and build iconic cars like the '63 Vette and the '55 Bel Air. Non-the-less, I think GM is doing a wonderful job keeping performance and flagship cars in their sights.

 

Nope the Camaro ZL-1 and the CTS V station wagon aren't "WOW" enough for me, the new Camaro leaves me cold, and I've never warmed to the looks of the CTS. Maybe the next generation 'Vette will be a WOW car, but that remains to be seen, but to paraphrase the small print in the car ads...*your actual WOW car may vary.