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Interview: Maximum Bob – Part two
3 years ago
Never famous, the dreadful Pontiac Aztec gained infamy instead
Wagoner had once been asked why GM had so many finance people in top positions but no ‘product guy’. He’d replied that the ‘product guy thing’ was overrated: if you had good designers, engineers and manufacturing people they would ensure product success. But as the number crunchers ruled and the duds mounted, Wagoner realised that, you know what, something vital was missing.
That summer he sat next to Bob Lutz at a dinner. As they chatted, Lutz says Wagoner asked: ‘Bob, if you were in my position at General Motors right now what would you do?’ Discussions followed and by 1 September that same year, Lutz was walking into GM’s headquarters as Vice Chairman for Product Development, licensed by Wagoner to transform the way it conceived, designed and developed its cars and trucks. He was just six months short of his 70th birthday.
Maximum Bob – as he’d been christened by autoextremist.com’s Peter DeLorenzo after an Elmore Leonard character – soon spotted the nub of GM’s problem. In his book Car Guys vs Bean Counters he says that in top-level meetings products were always discussed ‘in abstract: a description of category, size, investment level, cost and profit targets…but there were no photographs, no design renderings, nothing that would convey any emotional content or compelling reasons why this particular vehicle should win against the competition.’
"Many cars went into production bitterly opposed by the downtrodden designers. Lutz wrested Design away from the Vehicle Line Engineers – who now reported to him – and unified the studios, allowing the talent that was always there to flourish once more"
In one strategy session a giant matrix listed dozens of priorities like ‘increase market share’ and ‘reduce assembly hours per vehicle’ through to ‘achieve diversity targets’. Buried away was a little cell that read ‘achieve product excellence’.
‘There was the core of the GM problem,’ says Lutz. ‘Product excellence was merely one of the things the company should work on. As I told Rick Wagoner, that matrix should have been in the shape of a giant sunflower with a huge product excellence in the giant circular field, with all the other initiatives forming the yellow petals around the periphery.’
Again, Lutz started with the designers. GM Design was in a tough place. Riven by infighting between multiple studios and stripped of the crown jewel status it had enjoyed when don’t-mess-with-me Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell ran it, Design now reported to Engineering. Designs were diluted for production and cost reasons until they became lacklustre; or if they weren’t that, they were far, far worse. If you’ve not seen Breaking Bad, check out an Aztek to see what I mean. Many cars went into production bitterly opposed by the downtrodden designers. Lutz wrested Design away from the Vehicle Line Engineers – who now reported to him – and unified the studios, allowing the talent that was always there to flourish once more.
“He condemned the soap-powder-like brand management system that had pervaded GM, dubbing it ‘personnel-heavy, bureaucratic, detail-focussed, wasteful, unworkable and absolutely guaranteed to produce lousy results’”
Lutz scrubbed cars that even insiders, when they were being honest, admitted were ridiculous. ‘In his usual calm and gentlemanly fashion, Rick encouraged me to go through the overly ambitious product portfolio and cancel whatever I thought wrong or useless, and if it was too late for erasure perhaps inject modifications that would perfume the pig sufficiently to achieve at least a modicum of market success.’ He would be, as we’ll later see, ‘only partially successful’.
He condemned the soap-powder-like brand management system that had pervaded GM, dubbing it ‘personnel-heavy, bureaucratic, detail-focussed, wasteful, unworkable and absolutely guaranteed to produce lousy results’. He eschewed the slavish pursuit of bonus-related internal cost and time targets irrelevant – detrimental, in fact – to customers. He encouraged subjective judgement and individual aptitude, and empowered engineers he believed in. One of them told me: ‘Bob was a lightning rod for those who wanted change but believed they had no voice…as well as the many sycophants looking for a leg up.’
Most appreciated that Lutz was sharp witted but some also thought him too sharp tongued. He was, one manager said, ‘very dismissive, or totally engaging, depending on whether you shared his views. He was incredibly self-confident. As he said himself, “I’m often wrong but never in doubt”.’
Bob in his office at the GM Design Center, Warren (courtesy Bob Lutz Archive)
Evidence of Lutz’s presence came swiftly. Four months after asking Design to create an attention grabber, he unveiled the Pontiac Solstice roadster and coupé concepts at the 2002 Detroit show. Not only the designers were invigorated; an inspired Mark Reuss, then in advanced engineering and now GM President, insisted his team could make the cars runners, and did. Acclaim followed. When the roadster went on sale in 2005, Pontiac took 7000 orders in 10 days.
While most of the other cars launched on Bob’s watch were also good lookers, dynamically they were a mixed bag, says Angus MacKenzie, US automotive title Motor Trend’s then Editor-in-Chief. ‘The 2008 Cadillac CTS was genuinely good – the CTS-V was a stormer. The SRX not so much. The Corvettes were impressive: the 638bhp 2009 ZR1 would do a genuine 200mph for little more than a third the price of a Ferrari 599. The Pontiac G8 and GTO, which Lutz brought over from Holden in Australia, were crippled by the decision to make them Pontiacs.’
MacKenzie says: ‘Overall, Lutz-era GM cars were heavy and their V6 and four-cylinder powertrains weren’t great. So they struggled against Toyota and Honda rivals.’
Lutz pushed for the C8 Corvette to be mid-engined and took pride in the 2009 Chevrolet Camaro. But it’s the clever and underrated Chevrolet Volt/Vauxhall Ampera PHEV he considers the most significant of ‘his’ cars. ‘It required the most invention and was the greatest challenge. Nothing like it had been done before. There hadn’t been a series hybrid with a lithium-ion battery.’
After six years, Lutz thought GM’s product range was getting into good shape. And, working in unison, Wagoner, Lutz and Fritz Henderson had wrought remarkable change to lift GM’s quality, productivity and fuel-economy to industry standards while slashing costs and staff… but then the 2007 sub-prime mortgage crisis triggered America’s worst economic downturn since the Depression.
A ‘perfect storm’ of plummeting sales and vast fixed costs – its union contract, pensions and legacy health care – devoured GM’s cash. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2009 with assets of $82 billion against debts of $173 billion – the largest industrial bankruptcy in history. Forty days later, when the slimmer GM ‘NewCo’, funded by the US Treasury, emerged from Chapter 11, Lutz was one of the few top ‘OldCo’ executives still there, with marketing now added to his portfolio.
Of the brands that died then – Saab, Saturn, Hummer and Pontiac – Lutz shed no tears for ‘unviable’ Saab, which he thought GM should never have bought. Nor did he think GM should have created Saturn; and the Hummer he’d enthused about became ‘a colossal mistake’. He lamented the axing of Pontiac.
"Without Lutz, GM Design would have kept struggling. In his time here, there was a change in support and respect for Design, and the product design and perceptual quality improved. The market recognized that"
What did those who worked with him think? Michael Simcoe, GM’s Vice President of Global Design, says: ‘Bob showed a patriarchal respect and pride for those in Design. He believed we needed nurturing, protection and representation. It was almost conspiratorial; us against the rest of the business.
‘Bob had a good eye, he could read a surface and line, and more importantly, could describe the good and the bad, although sometimes his florid descriptions left us guessing. Some were very direct – for example, describing jelly bean-shaped designs as suppositories.
‘He was gracious but always had the last word. We listened because had great design sense. Mostly I respected his design opinions, even if sometimes they were a little traditional. I liked him; he’s the sort of person you want to please.
‘Without Lutz, GM Design would have kept struggling. In his time here, there was a change in support and respect for Design, and the product design and perceptual quality improved. The market recognized that. The company’s leadership still drives the message [of product excellence], and everyone believes.’
When he retired in May 2010, a few months past his 78th birthday, he said: ‘I can confidently say that the job I came here to do more than nine years ago is now complete. The absolute commitment to being a product-driven company is ingrained.’ Others suspected that whatever momentum he’d built in changing GM was disrupted by the bankruptcy.
Bob in the GM design studio back in 2006 with CEO Rick Wagoner (centre) and CFO Fritz Henderson
On 29 July 2023, at a celebration near Detroit marking 60 years since the start of Lutz’s automotive career, Rick Wagoner told Bob: ‘I think your biggest accomplishment [at GM] was to re-focus and re-energise the entire organisation on the importance of great design. Your pushing of the organisation to focus on delighting customers, especially with beautiful designs, motivated not just the designers and engineers, but really the entire company, which paid huge dividends in the marketplace.’
Patrick le Quément, former design boss of Ford of Europe and later Renault, is in no doubt about Lutz’s stature. ‘I’ve worked with people like Ferdinand Piëch and Carl Hahn [VAG], Kenichi Yamamoto [Mazda] and Carlos Tavares [Stellantis], but none understood as much about what made a car exciting,’ he says. ‘Bob had by far the most complete knowledge, a multitude of talents and instinctive understanding of what was hot. He was the greatest car guy I ever worked with.’
At 91, Lutz is still on the board of a leading hi-tech battery company, the Marine Military Academy and Marine Corps University Foundation. He works one or two days a week. He lives at his farm just north of Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his fourth wife Terri, various pets – including two Juliana pigs – and 18 cars.
Problems with his eyesight stopped him flying four years ago. He sold his helicopter and military jets, the Czech L-39 Albatross and faster, more challenging Dornier Alpha. His hobby is making 1:24 scale cars and 1:33 World War Two aircraft from paper. Every day, he smokes one or two of his treasured Oliva Nicaraguan cigars and drinks a martini on the rocks. He’s on the ball, up to speed and as blunt as ever, as I found last week when answering my questions, presented here in Q&A format.
Why have so few car guys headed up car companies?
‘I think it’s because car guys often lack the educational credentials and, sometimes, the ambition and leadership traits to be successful in senior positions,’ he said. ‘There is also a generalised corporate worry that the car guy will make foolish decisions due to his passion.
‘Bean counters commit the worst mistakes: excessive caution, the safe approach, blandness, lack of any compelling reason to buy the vehicle. Car guys sometimes create compelling vehicles that don’t sell well. But they usually resonate with the specialist media and the car guy community. Thus they build brand awareness and willingness to consider. Traditional finance people will never understand this.
‘Among the greatest car guys, it’s hard not to acknowledge the genius of Ferdinand Piëch. Authoritarian, unpleasant, cunning. I never could have worked for him. But his car guy instincts were irreproachable. What he did for the Audi brand is almost beyond belief. Whatever my contribution, it is eclipsed by Piëch, Elon Musk and Carlos Tavares, the current CEO of Stellantis.
‘Musk will go down in history as a modern equivalent of Gottlieb Daimler and Henry Ford. Daring, unconventional, controversial, driven. He exemplifies the type of person it takes to change paradigms. I probably couldn’t have worked with him; few can. With him, it’s “my way or the highway”.’
Who are the leading car guys today?
‘The Chinese industry is young, fast moving and dynamic, and must contain more than a few. Of those familiar to me, as well as Tavares I’d nominate Mark Reuss, president of GM, and Jim Farley, CEO of Ford.’
Bob believes Elon Musk is a modern-day Henry Ford (courtesy teslarati.com)
Why aren’t more engineers CEOs?
‘I believe it’s because most engineers are very orderly, disciplined and rule bound. Constrained as they are in their world by the laws of physics, many lack the creative inspiration or the desire to change the system; to lead.’
‘All the designers I rate most highly [listed below] were, or are, not only superb artists and genuine car guys but exhibited a strong will to engage in corporate fights to protect design against the ever-present competing priorities. So-called hot pencils are everywhere but those with the guts, drive and tenacity to lead their teams to the desired outcome are the true heroes of car and truck design.’
‘As for impressive marketing people, I’m hard pressed to name more than Jim Farley when he was in marketing. I am also compelled to nominate myself. I think I demonstrated again and again that all the sophisticated analysis, all the process focus, pales into insignificance when compared to a dedication to compelling, fresh design, superb engineering and a strong focus on customer value.
‘Throughout my career, in all companies, I have found the marketing people to be clueless users of historical data, given to spending prodigious amounts of money on increasingly woke advertising that does everything but give the viewer a concrete reason to consider the vehicle.’
Which company would you most liked to have run?
‘I would have greatly enjoyed being CEO of BMW, or of GM. I often feel a compelling desire to fix what is clearly wrong at BMW. From a learning standpoint, a stint with Toyota in the ’80s or ’90s would have been valuable. Among today’s companies it’s hard not to be deeply impressed by the creativity, design and engineering excellence of Hyundai and Kia.’
Among Bob’s cars – full list below – are a 1934 LaSalle convertible, similar to the one his parents owned when he was a toddler, his father’s Aston Martin DB2, the Autokraft AC Cobra that inspired the Viper and rare Intermeccanica Italia and Monteverdi 275 High Speed Coupe.
‘I’ve always had a fondness for the so-called “Etceterini” – European, usually Italian, premium cars with Detroit drivetrains. So l wish l owned a De Tomaso Mangusta, Iso Rivolta or Bizzarini. Or a gorgeous Chrysler Hemi-powered Facel Vega. Monteverdi holds a special place in my heart. Like me, they are half Swiss, half American. The Frua-designed coupé body – mine is 1971 – was aesthetically above reproach, and still looks spectacularly good.
What was your best-ever drive?
‘Through the mountainous twisties of southern France during the Opel Ascona media drive. For my last tank of fuel I’d take my 2010 Corvette ZR1 though the Bernina pass from St Moritz down to the Italian border and back – but minus the onerous Swiss speed limit.’
"Of all Lutz’s controversial statements over the decades, his anti-global warming views have caused most rancour. ‘My view has not changed,’ he says. ‘I've been following “the movement” since the mid-’80s. None of the periodic, dire predictions has ever materialised"
What are the biggest challenges facing the industry?
‘Government CO2 regulation and the overly hasty move to electrification. But EVs will prevail and the coming transition to silicon anode Li-ion batteries will add about 60 per cent more energy density. Range anxiety will be a thing of the past. Who drives more than 600 miles per day?
‘But environmentally they are a scam: with roughly 90 per cent of electricity generated by fossil fuels they make no contribution to reduction of the much-dreaded CO2 output. Electrical grids globally will have to be upgraded and a transition to safe nuclear power is unavoidable.’
Of all Lutz’s controversial statements over the decades, his anti-global warming views have caused most rancour. ‘My view has not changed,’ he says. ‘I’ve been following “the movement” since the mid-’80s. None of the periodic, dire predictions has ever materialised. Polar bears are fine, as are the ice caps; the Florida Keys are not underwater as was predicted for 2010. Lower Manhattan is not flooded as was predicted for 2013. Historical data confirms that the number of severe weather events – hurricanes, tornadoes, forest fires – is down from the levels of 50 to 100 years ago, despite what the drum beat of media hype would have you believe.
‘Astrophysicists maintain that warming, though mild, is caused by solar activity. Their observation is that, yes, the CO2 curve and warming move in parallel. But the data shows that warming comes first. The whole AGW [Anthropogenic Global Warming] movement is driven by politics, and not science. Any so motivated individual should look at the available historical data rather than uncritically accepting the alarmist views propagated by The Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post and The Associated Press.’
Bob and former US President Donald Trump (courtesy Bob Lutz Archive)
So Bob: any regrets?
‘Sure! If I’d been less generous in my criticism of the leaders and cultures of the companies I worked for, I might have been CEO of Ford, Chrysler or GM. But that would have meant going with the flow, and I found that impossible. All in all, I’ve had a fabulous career and a great life, which, I hope and believe, won’t be over any time soon.
‘I would like to be remembered as a guy who made a difference in the industry. Someone who loved cars, the whole idea of personal mobility and the thrill that comes from owning and driving really good ones. And I would like to be remembered as the man who tried his very best to make cars and trucks that truly delighted customers as opposed to just giving them the bare minimum.’
Read part one here
Acknowledgements: Bob Lutz Icons and Idiots, Car Guys vs Bean Counters and Guts; YouTube Bob Lutz interview with Adam Wadecki of Rare Classic Cars; Car and Driver.
