In true Colbert Report fashion, a “tip of the hat” to the General Motor’s spinmeisters for letting GM Car Czar Bob Lutz walk into the lion’s den, knowing full well Colbert would make him look like an idiot. Mission accomplished. For example, Mr. Colbert pushed Maximum Bob on his stance on global warming, forcing the winner of our annual Bob Lutz Award to claim the Volt was for people interested in operating “cost per mile,” not the environment. Bob’s request for a change of subject was far from elegant (somebody help me, please!). Although Colbert managed to make Lutz look tongue-tied, nervous and shifty– only one of which you’ll see in person– the interview never got to the heart of the matter. So a “wag of the finger” to Stephen Colbert for not asking the obvious questions: is the Volt currently for sale? How much? Does GM have the financial liquidity to make it happen? On that note, Mr. Colbert should take a gander at GM’s market share slide before suggesting (however saracastically) that Lutz should take over the U.S. financial system (shiver). And to think I once compared Stephen Colbert’s passion for truth to the honest goodness of a Ford Ranger. Fake news should be ashamed of themselves.
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Well what else was there to expect? Probably not the best move from GM PR/marketing. Come to think of it when was there a good move by GM PR/marketing?
I bet the rich Japanese businessman that Colbert would have Lutz by the balls, and Lutz would laugh!
That’s great stuff — and he maneuvered Lutz into dissing Hummer — Brilliant!
In the big guy’s defense, making people look like idiots is Colbert’s job.
From what I’ve seen and read, Lutz doesn’t need Stephen Colbert’s help to look like an idiot.
He’s already got it perfected.
MB looked uncomfortable and out of his element. The rapid fire give and take quipping isn’t his forte’. Would have been better if MB was a little more upbeat and brighter regarding the new GM miracle product, the VOLT. It is possible to be entertaining, personable, engaging and informative at the same time. I think that look of seriousness on MB’s mug is permanent and the result of the shiatstorm he endures every day. Or he could just be that arrogant and not care about trying to sell the idea of the Volt or GM at large to the millions of viewers. He’s the perfect comedic foil for Stephen though.
I know Bob Lutz can be a chowder head at times but that’s true of most big executives (check out John Snow at Cerberus sometime!) But all in all I think he did OK. As one poster indicated it is Colbert’s job to bring all down to his level and the jibbing was good natured.
Big headed executives need to do things like this from time to time; a little humility is good for all.
Nah…
It wasn’t that bad…Except for the “sunflares” theory obviously.
What’s he going to do, defend HUMMER? Even for Lutz that would be one bridge too far. Might as well cut your losses on that one to maintain whatever credibility is left by the general public. Everyone knows it as the quintessenstial gass-guzzler, so much so that at this point it may well be good PR to sell off HUMMER to some Russian billionaire miscreant.
People on the streets will probably just applaud GM for swindling some rich russian fellon out of some of his money. Serves them communists right, right?
Man, Lutz gave up a golden opportunity when Colbert asked him if the Volt would get him laid…he could’ve been like “in your case, Stephen, I highly doubt it” or some quip like that. Oh well…
I don’t know what you were watching, but Colbert definitely didn’t make Lutz look bad. Look, he’s political satire, everyone knows that. Lutz & GM gain immediate cred just by agreeing to be subject to Colbert. On top of it, the banter was good natured and Lutz came off as game. No controversy here.
Lutz wasn’t that bad. At least he had a sense of humor. Can you imagine someone like a Wagoner in the hot seat?
Yeah, Lutz looked like an idiot on sun spots, but that’s nothing we already didn’t know.
Lutz makes more sense talking to Colbert than he does talking by himself :).
If they plan on putting this car out for 2010 and the technology does work, why not take members of the press for a drive? Prove it beyond just bringing out from behind a curtain and slamming those who don’t believe it will work. Surely, if they plan to bring it out for 2010 they have a vehicle that can be driven now. Showing still provides no proof that it is going to work as they say it will.
I’m with jakemon and John Horner on this one. Seemed all in good fun to me. Colbert killed as usual.
I thought Lutz did great, showed a sense of humor, played along while getting the Volt a plug on national TV and GM a plug with young people.
Mission accomplished. I think you may be in the minority if you think he looked like an idiot.
Did anyone else notice that Lutz gave him a model of the Volt concept, not the production model?
Oh right, the toy model version of the production Volt won’t be ready until 2011…
I think you’re over reacting to this, yes there were some stalling moments, but he came across pretty well and in the usual colbert way he was always going to get panned. Still he made the audience in the studio and so i guess at home laugh – which is plus points and will go down well. Its sold more info on the car which you have to admit sounds good. I’ve seen much worse interviews on the show.
Headline amended.
Lutz seemed pretty good natured about this. The issue remains though as to how much fantasy from fact surrounds the Volt. Managing batteries and electric drive is way more complicated than it looks…
I’m sorry TTAC, but waving your finger at a fake news show for not asking the tough questions deserves a wave of the finger. What else do you expect from a man who insists on keeping bears at the top of his threat-down list?
They were saying $0.02 per mile a while back and now he says $0.03 to $0.08 per mile. Gotta love his consistancy.
And the option for a photovoltaic roof to run the air conditioning. Who is going planning on doing that? Oh, that’s right, Toyota already has plans for their next version of the Prius. Glad to see he has such original ideas.
Lutz is still a putz.
the whole point of the interview was to give the volt a little exposure to the younger crowd. i thought i was hillarious. there where times where he was having trouble saying things. i thought it was funny if it was on cnn i would think this was not funny but terrible. this was a way of getting young people interested in the volt by throwing in some facts about the car. as much as just be intertaining. the crowd that watchs this show do not expect a formal interview. that is evident by the questions he asked. if he would have given a formal type cnn interview the audience would not have paid attention and maybe even changed the channel.
Didn’t make Lutz look that bad from my seat, at least not as bad as he usually does. I got the feeling it was scripted though.
I wonder how much the solar panel roof option is going to be and how much weight it will add? Will it be thin film or traditional PV’s.
“We tried that but people kept running over it.”
Actually, Lutz held up his end of the humor pretty well.
The interview probably could have been funnier but I think it’s hard for Lutz to let go of his principal mission: SELL THE VOLT.
Colbert has this amazing ability to being simultaneously stabbing you and laughing with you without serious insult.
I’ve watched a lot of Colbert interviews, this has to be one of the worst (i.e. for the guest). That line about attracting “no-makeup environmentalists” almost made me die laughing. But the biggest question I have now is this: am I ready to buy an electric car from a man who believes that global warming is caused by sunspots?
I’d love to see any of the supposed B&B sit in the seat across from Colbert and be able to say three words in a row. I think Lutz did splendidly.