This weekend’s announcement that “Maximum” Bob Lutz will stay on at GM is the biggest blow to GM’s re:invention PR since Fritz Henderson was handed the helm by Rick Wagoner. In essence, Lutz’s “unretirement” sends the very same message Wagoner once repeated ad nauseum: GM’s turnaround would be going well if it weren’t for that darn economy. And, of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Lutz arrived at GM in 2001 with a single thesis: excitement could turn the General around. Eight years later, and the results speak for themselves. Despite injecting Pontiac with its best products in decades, Lutz couldn’t even save GM’s “excitement brand.” Though Lutz created the Malibu to add his aesthetic appeal to GM’s long-ignored mid-sized offerings, the car only excited automotive journalists. Consumers preferred the plain-jane Impala. Ultimately, Lutz proves exactly how little GM has changed. His old-school, hard-charging pursuit of glamor, performance and excitement are little more than a fading afterglow from the good old days of Motorama excess. The market has moved on, but GM hasn’t.
I actually had just a little bit of hope for the “New GM” until Lutz came back.
No matter which direction GM goes, it’s going to have a tough road even among the Detroit automakers.
Ford seems to be mostly going the “appliance” Toyota route while Fiatsler is going the “excitement” route.
Unfortunately for GM, Ford’s got a big jump on the quality front, and competing with the combined design forces of MOPAR and the Italians is probably going to be a tall order.
No reinvention of anything should involve a 77 year old.
Was it consumers that preferred the plain-Jane Impala or rental companies?
@npbheights: Not so fast. I’d like to see what Lee Iacocca could do for Chrysler these days. He’s well north of 77.
@ajla: If the market wants quality appliances, then Ford won’t have trouble competing against Fiatsler.
Unfortunately for GM, it can produce neither excitement nor perceived quality.
After this was announced on Friday, I started using the word “fraud” in connection with the “New GM.”
Y’know, the Lutz fans constantly make comparisons to Pontiac in the sixties — Pete Estes, John De Lorean, Jim Wangers, Royal Bobcats, Tri-Power GTOs. I was recently writing an article on the GTO, and the conclusion that I came to was that what made Pontiac work in the sixties was not that they were selling excitement, per se. What made it work was that Wangers and, to a lesser extent, De Lorean, had an extremely astute understanding of their market. Wangers hung out with hot rodding kids and drag racers, and he knew what was In and what was Out. He caught a particular wave of post-adolescent Baby Boomers who were of a similar mindset, which made his understanding of contemporary car culture extremely valuable. De Lorean and Estes were smart enough to listen to him, despite a lot of intransigence from GM management.
If the tastes of the market at that point had been different — if the Boomers were still too young to drive, or hadn’t been interested in cars — the GTO would have flopped, and Pete Estes probably would have been canned for it. If gas had been more expensive and insurance companies had immediately slapped the punitive surcharges on Supercars that they did by 1970, buyers would have shied away, as they did in the early seventies. The tastes of buyers in 1976 were very different than those of 1964.
The key to success, if you want to be a mass-market player, is to understand what your market wants and where it’s going. It’s a transitory and ephemeral thing, and what worked five years ago or even six months ago doesn’t necessarily work now — particularly with young buyers, whose circumstances (needs, tastes, resources) change very quickly.
The failing of Lutz is that with his obsession with sixties-style muscle, I don’t think he has a solitary clue what the modern youth market wants. Which is why cars like the G8 have sent all the right signals to aging nostalgists, but not done anything useful in the market.
Not sure a 70yr+ ‘product genius’ in a Cadillac Escalade with Chrome rims is the right choice in the world of high gas prices, unemployment and Prius, smaller cars.
Cadillac will not save GM
@ argentla:
I don’t think he has a solitary clue what the modern youth market wants. Which is why cars like the G8 have sent all the right signals to aging nostalgists, but not done anything useful in the market.
I think you’re being too hard on the G8.
The only thing really “nostalgic” about the G8 is that it’s a new GM sedan for under $40K that doesn’t blow. It has a fairly Teutonic interior, there’s no decal packages or retro styling, the L76 V8 is extremely subdued (too much IMO), and the car is sold all over the world just with different grills attached. I consider it more of a “world car” in its execution- like the Ford Fiesta or Saturn Astra- over say a nostalgia-mobile like a Challenger or SSR.
On sales front, the G8 has sold much better the last couple months. In June it outsold the Charger, Avalon, Maxima, Taurus, and Lucerne. It’s a good car, a lot better than a W-body powered by a 3500-series V6. RWD only might be a hard sell in the snowbelt, but I think a Chevy version has a future in the large car segment as long as the reliability isn’t bad.
I also don’t think that Lutz or GM expected the G8, a big $30K sedan, to capture the youth market. I’d guess that was the job of the Astra, Cobalt, and the mythical impossible to find Camaro LS.
GM can’t do right by TTAC. Whatever GM does, everyone here invariably finds fault.
People still want the glamour, glitz, excitement, and performance promised in the ’50s Motorama days. They just have to balance that against $3.00 gasoline, resale values, insurance rates, and day-to-day functionality.
I don’t see why we can’t have quality and excitement. Gosh knows Toyota isn’t setting the World on fire with quality alone, anymore. Who knows, maybe GM really can come back.
Is this news, or am I late to the party?
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE56C5UU20090713
@Buick61,
I believe the overwhelming editorial and B & B opinion of GM is that neither it’s leaders nor the government care much about actually making the structural changes needed to make GM successful. That’s not negativity so much as frustration with inaction by GM’s key stakeholders.
If GM had the right leadership, they would be behaving like Hyundai did 8-10 years ago, emphasizing an industry leading warranty, and possibly a guaranty of resale value.
As an example, VW’s CPO warranty is double the duration of GM’s equivalent warranty. The takeaway is that VW has more confidence in their lemons than GM has in its own. That says all you need to hear.
“Eight years later, and the results speak for themselves. Despite injecting Pontiac with its best products in decades, Lutz couldn’t even save GM’s “excitement brand.””
How unfair. GM has about a thousand problems, only one of which happens to be the product. With Lutz at the helm, that was one less thing to worry about. If the remainder sink the company anyway, that’s hardly his fault.
@ ajila:
I don’t mean that the G8 is specifically nostalgic in styling or approach (if it were, it would probably be called Bonneville or Grand Prix, for starters), but that its purpose — to try to revive the “We Build Excitement” motif — is a throwback to the thinking of 40-50 years ago, which has led to a lot of the adulation directed toward Lutz.
I also don’t think the G8 is aimed at the youth market. The problem is that I don’t know that Lutz or anyone else at GM has a coherent idea who it IS aimed at. It’s in a price range where Pontiac had little traction (and where Chevy will probably have even less), it’s too thirsty and too aggressive for a lot of family car buyers, and it doesn’t have the badge cachet to present itself as a V8-powered alternative to the Infiniti G37 or BMW 3-Series. It’s hard for me to picture an Avalon shopper looking at it twice.
It’s not a bad car, but it’s a car whose mission seems pretty hazy. And, like the ill-fated 2004-2006 GTO, it’s not attractive enough or distinctive enough to entice buyers who are not already of the “rear-drive V8? I’m there” mindset.
I think bringing Lutz back is a giant step backward. It sends all the wrong signals to consumers and to management at GM – indicating not a rebirth but an unpleasant regurgitaion of old faces and, very likely, habits. If GM is to survive, it needs a reinvention, not a reorganization. And having a jet-flying global warming denialist as your ‘new face’ is simply not smart.
What GM fails to realize is that the age of the full-size SUV is not dying, it’s dead. The age of V8 muscle cars has passed, too. The full-size V8 powered truck for use as personal transportation is coming to a quick close. There are those that don’t believe this, and those that shake their fists and say you’ll take away their Hummer/Denali/F-250 when you pry the wheel from their cold, dead hands. And they are a dying breed, too.
Like it or not, the near future is going to be dominated by fuel-efficient, lightweight, 4-cylinder cars. Diesels are coming. Hybrids are multiplying. Electrics are becoming viable. We can deny it or embrace it. It’s coming just the same.
If GM can’t see the world as it is or imagine the world as it very likely will be, it will prove it should have been left for dead.
it’s a car whose mission seems pretty hazy.
It supposed to be a bargain BMW meets muscle car. Which isn’t particularly a good thing, being that BMW didn’t build a name for itself by selling at a discount, and given that Cadillac is already supposed to be the brand whose job it is to compete with BMW.
So we’re back to the same old overlap problem all over again. Hiring Lutz in a strategic position is a mistake. He would be fine at a lower tactical level, such as overseeing the truck line, but to put him at the helm as has been done here is a huge error in judgment.
@argentla:
I’ve never seen an official list of hopeful competitors for the G8, but I would guess that GM was aiming at:
1. LX-platform buyers
2. GM performance car buyers
3. Buyers of certain V6 cars like the Mazda6s, Maxima, Legacy 3.0, Galant Ralliart, etc.
4. People thinking about buying a used European car.
I agree that claiming it went up against the Avalon or a new BMW would be wrong or wishful thinking.
___
As for some of your other points, keep in mind that the G8 V6 and GT we got represented the sportiest options that Holden offers. Plus, GM added the fake hoods scoops and air dam to better match the performance brand ideal of Pontiac. I would expect a Chevy version to be more subdued.
The basic Commodore looks like this: Commodore Omega. I don’t think that is too aggressive as to scare away prospective buyers.
Someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that Holden offers 3 different suspensions for the Commodore lineup all with varying degrees of comfort and sophistication. So GM could offer a Caprice trim level that gives a smoother ride for people not looking for a sports sedan (I’m thinking fans of the B-body and Panther platform would like something like that).
Unless importing the cars are a massive money pit or they are reliability nightmares I don’t see why GM shouldn’t pull the the trigger on a Zeta Caprice. The alternatives are rebadging the Lacrosse or soldiering on with the W-body for 3 more years, neither of those sound like a winning plan.
I don’t usually listen to the podcats but I did listen to this one and I really appreciated the Straight Talk on Appliances.
I know people with Camrys and Accords and they do take pride in ownership of those cars. They clearly value them as appliances (for the routine things they do reliably and well) but they also seem to appreciate the intrinsic value and appeal of the car.
I don’t have the funds for a pure fun car – and may never – so I have to get my routine joy from going out to my appliance on a -35degF morning, turning the key and hearing the engine start. And I’m really OK with that because driving an appliance to work at -35degF really is waaaay better than walking to work at -35degF.
Of course, I initially bought the car because it looked like fun – it had an appeal. It was only after some time with it that I came to really appreciate its value as an appliance.
I am no Government Motors apologist. But I think you guys are coming down a bit hard on their approach to performance cars.
What GM needs to learn (and the TTAC editorial staff!) is that GM needs to get their appliance cars up to spec. That is not to say that the cars are “bad spec”, but that the build quality is not what it could be. I think a lot of appliance buyers out there would happily buy a GM appliance, if they knew they could depend on it to run 100K miles trouble free under the hood (Japanese car owners obviously don’t care about interiors, most Accords I see have crap interiors in just 3 years)
GM needs to figure out how to do this, before trying to sell zippy cars as well again. As much as I have desired the Z28 (which got cancelled), I would have refused to buy one on two conditions: (1) GM is now Government and UAW Motors. GUM in my mind :)
(2) I worked on a pickup this past week (I am not a mechanic, but have a advanced code tool and a engineering degree, and am called in on such problems when there is no local dealer to run too), which was practically brand new, and had the cylinder drop technology. That technology threw a generic code with no reasoning behind it.
GM MUST GET QUALITY AS JOB 1 (to quote the old Ford commercials, even though they hardly took the mantra all that seriously themselves).
Just look at the sheared shafts in the SS V8 Camaros in a later post… but what can be expected of a company that practically gave itself away too its unions?
“On sales front, the G8 has sold much better the last couple months. In June it outsold the Charger, Avalon, Maxima, Taurus, and Lucerne.”
I believe the fact that Pontiac is taking a dirt nap (so those being able to barter can probably get one for song) combined with the fact GM is offering 0% for 60 on them may have more to do with the sudden uptick in sales than the general quality of the car.
I won’t hate on the car, its a great whip, but I will call a spade a spade. The car was a non-starter until the word got out that Pontiac was toast.