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A Look Back at the Career of Bob Lutz
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Re: A Look Back at the Career of Bob Lutz
I 'm a big Lutz fan, I can honestly say I bought the goat because I trusted the guy, which on balance was a good decision for me. ;)
My biggest disappointment was that he was not made CEO of either Chrysler or GM. IMHO neither company would have ended in bankruptcy but would have safely made it through 2008 & 09 and now be selling cars that people actually want to own. :'(a.k.a. - arrowhead from joysey
"They're no good for you. all they ever think about are cars" (GTO/Warren Oates) - Two Lane Blacktop
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Re: A Look Back at the Career of Bob Lutz
Originally posted by arrowheadIMHO neither company would have ended in bankruptcy but would have safely made it through 2008 & 09
I think he was better as a role guy than he would have been as a supreme leader. He was able to do a lot more and say a lot more in his role jobs than he ever would have been able to do/say as a cheif exec....in my opinion anyway.
Brian
That which you manifest is before you.
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Re: A Look Back at the Career of Bob Lutz
I dunno, Dude. If Lutz could have boogied on water, given sight to the blind, and fed five thousand chumps (who didn't plan ahead) out of a single lunch sack, he probably could have saved us from "Government Motors." ;D
However, in a soul-crushing corporate culture that breeds sniveling bureaucrats, sycophantic "yes" men, petty tyrants, union hacks, and myopic bean-counting weasels, Lutz was an outstanding, once-in-a-generation visionary. He understood product better than an arena full of focus groups. It's too bad he didn't get to be the final authority at some OEM.
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Re: A Look Back at the Career of Bob Lutz
I haven't heard the napkin story. Robert McNamara "famously drew up the specs for the Falcon on the back of a church program during Sunday worship." See http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009...e-ford-falcon/ But he was no car designer or engineer. He was strictly a numbers guy. http://speedzzter.blogspot.com/search?q=mcnamara+falcon+93]See http://speedzzter.blogspot.com/search?q=mcnamara+falcon+93[/url]
Maybe the late Don Frey (http://speedzzter.blogspot.com/2010/...tanger-dr.html)-- one of the Mustang's real fathers -- could have doodled out a napkin sketch of the baby bird.
(McNamara] showed the numbers [from the church bulletin] to another top executive, Donald Frey. In "The Reckoning," David Halberstam's 1986 book about the American automobile industry and its troubles, he wrote that [Dr.] Frey responded, "Bob, you've got everything down except what kind of car you want."
"What do you mean?" McNamara asked.
"Do you want a soft car, a hot, sexy car, a comfortable car, a car for the young, or a car for the middle class? Whose car is it, what does it feel like?"
Mr. McNamara had not considered that factor.
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Re: A Look Back at the Career of Bob Lutz
McNamara loved the Falcon because it was basic boring transportation. He was not a fan of the Mustang.
Had he been born several decades later, McNamara undoubtedly would have been runnin Toyota in America. His "vision" of what cars should be (appliances) fits perfectly with theirs.
BrianThat which you manifest is before you.
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Re: A Look Back at the Career of Bob Lutz
So true. He'd probably be championing the Prius right up until his unintendedly accelerated into the back of a frame-rusted Tundra . . . . :D
BTW, Toyota is now "dead" to 44 percent of U.S. vehicle buyers (http://www.thestreet.com/story/10712...us-buyers.html) So what's wrong with the other 66 percent? The rest are one of the following: (a) appliance motorsts (i.e. "McNamarians") who can't read or don't follow the news, (b) 'Yoda collaborators, or (c) actually dead at the hands of their pavement-ripping Prius.
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