A good friend of mine told me about a lunch with Bob Lutz and I have to say I love the way Lutz’s mind works. Not only do we both agree on many points of view but he also has the same strong feelings as I do with regards to global warming. Now here’s a guy who doesn’t hold back when he’s got something to say. Recently he said, “One of the big three will die but not us.” Bob Lutz, General Motors’ vice chairman who made a name developing cars like the Dodge Viper says he loves doing the unexpected and acting “contrary to the conventional wisdom, forcing people to re-think their beliefs.” Lutz is very excited about the fuel efficient Chevrolet Volt which is going to run on a lithium-ion battery. “The Volt thrills me because it’s the last thing anybody expected from GM,” he said at a private lunch in Arlington today.
During lunch Lutz said, Hybrid cars like those made by Toyota “make no economic sense,” because their price will never come down, and diesel autos like those touted by Chrysler are also uneconomic. The only place in Europe that diesel-driven cars are big, he said, is where diesel fuel is half the cost of regular gasoline; in most places there, the costs are comparable and diesel has little market penetration.
Global warming is a “total crock of s#it. I’m a skeptic, not a denier. Having said that, my opinion doesn’t matter. I’m motivated more by the desire to replace imported oil than by the CO2.”
With more and more good-quality cars on the market these days, “you’ve got to look at the business artistically, too. Part of our business is creating blockbusters just like the movie business yet we never think of ourselves that way. A car is an exciting mobile sculpture that you want to own, drive and be seen in. That’s why auto industry comeback stories are always design driven. One GM car that fills that bill is Cadillac’s CTS.”
“The best car dealers will thrive even in a sluggish economy. They’ve got to isolate themselves from the economic forecasts and say, I make my own prosperity. ”
