In a speech during his induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame earlier this week, Former General Motors vice chairman in charge of product development Bob Lutz reflected on his efforts to create a culture of “product excellence” at two of his employers — GM and Chrysler.
When he left Chrysler in 1998, the automaker fell back to its old way of doing business that ended up leaving it in the “porcelain bowl”, Lutz reflected.
“As a special point of pride for me, it’s because I left Chrysler in 1998, and I thought I had been able to convince the culture that excellence pays. And a little more money to be excellent, a little restraint on leasing, a little restraint on daily rental sales is all for the better. The minute I was out the door they said “thank God he’s gone, now we can get back to doing business the way we always have”, and headed straight for the porcelain bowl.”
By contrast, Lutz’s efforts to instill a similar culture at General Motors has endured following his departure, having become “deeply ingrained” at the automaker. A series of recent awards and praise, such as the top rating for the all-new 2014 Chevrolet Impala sedan from the Consumer Reports this week, reflect that.
I was “wondering whether the lesson that excellence pays would be retained by General Motors after my departure”, said Lutz. “Well, those JD Power Quality Reports, the new GMC and Chevrolet pickup trucks, and this triumph of the Chevrolet Impala convinces me that the ethic of spend a little more, engineer it a little better, put in the extra cost if you have to, but product excellence is the final driver of market and financial success. That lesson, I think, is deeply ingrained in General Motors, and by the way, the rest of the industry too, but especially General Motors.”
Lutz spent most of his career at GM as vice chairman in charge of product development, but also held positions at BMW and Ford.
His conclusion is simple, yet powerful: “Product excellence is the final driver of market and financial success.”
Here’s a segment of Lutz’s speech (not always mobile-friendly):
The GM Authority Take
Thank you for all of the hard work, Mr. Lutz. GM wouldn’t be the same without you.
Comments
Bob hit it on the head. Don’t go crazy with leases and fleets, don’t be cheap, and don’t under engineer. For the past 20 years GM has had a lot of good products and a lot of mediocre products. Luckily there haven’t been many bad ones; we’ll maybe the Terraza and its Pontiac half brother!
GM has proven for the past 100 years they have the best automobile engineers in the world and now we are starting to see their work on a more consistent basis. These next 20 years will be very exciting. I can’t wait.
While I agree with what Bob is saying I think he’s kind of completely ignoring that other thing that happened to Chrysler in 1998.
You know that part with the certain German company that took all their money then threw them in the wild to fend for themselves. A lot of people seem to ignore that part of the story.
The key to GM right now is Bob came in and as he said changed the culture. He enabled the engineers to do what they so best Engineer and call the shots they needed to do. he did the same with styling etc.
Case in point panel gaps were wider at GM than any where else. He asked the engineer in charge why they could not close them up. He was told they were not told to do it and they could meet of beat any of them. Bob told him do what you need to do and close them up. No one has to tell you to do it from here on out. That is the kind of thinking they had and what he changed.
Since he left he has hovered over GM and supported those who has continued his changes. So far they are still going in the right direction on this.
I would recommend reading Bobs book Car guys VS Bean Counters and you will have a good idea how screwed up the thinking was there and how much more there is to do.
To be far to Chrysler their down fall was the Germans did not want anything other then the trucks, Jeeps and large cars. They decimated the small car and never showed much for the mid size cars. This is where Chrysler has yet to gain any traction. The Neon loss like it or not was a major hit for them and they have yet to recover.
Like him or hate him Bob did more good in the few years he was at GM and I only wish he had another 10 years earlier and he many have saved Pontiac.
Also read his book Guts as it is also very good.
I love Bob Lutz as much as the next person, but where is he with taking some blame for the Malibu?
He was there while it was worked on. I saw an interview with him stating that rear seat room doesn’t matter to consumers…WHAAAAAAT Bob?
The shorter wheel base Malibu has been a catastrophe for GM so far. It’s lacking in technology and roominess.
No foldaway mirrors, No LED option, No rear seat heat vents, No visible tail pipes (except LTZ trim) Tiny rear door (which makes it harder to get in/out from back seat, Cramped rear seat for segment, Only fake wood trim as trim option, middle of the pack on the MPG battle, No Full Hybrid (not that I care for it but customers LOVE THEM), No plug in option. GM, and Lutz dropped the ball on this one BIG TIME during his last years at the company. The Midsize class is VITAL!!!
The length of the car is fine it’s the wheel base they decided to go with that doesn’t work in the US market. They should have used the LaCrosse wheelbase with shorter overhangs for the Malibu. The only thing it has to trump other cars in the segment is the Chevy MyLink system.
GM needs a brand new Malibu ASAP, as in like two years from now, TOPS!!!
GM has to do this so the Malibu name doesn’t get ruined in the consumers mind for the Mid size class.
And the new Malibu better come with the Thunder or GM is done in this class.
Just my opinion.
First, the Malibu is not lacking technology! Yes the wheelbase is a little small, but the trunk is huge! The rear seat is only small because (in my opinion) the bottom rear seat cushion is so long, but that’s what makes it comfortable! You don’t want one of those backseats that Chrysler always designs (with no thigh support at all) that’s why I personally hate Chrysler, they make the worst seats, and always have flat blahh interiors!
How is it not lacking in technology/options? I just named you countless of features it is missing. And only this upcoming year, will it receive blind zone tech. So how is my statement incorrect?
Isn’t it funny how every other sedan in the Chevy lineup is selling like crazy, except the Malibu?
That’s b/c the Spark, Sonic, Cruze (to a point) Impala lead the segment in technology/options. People know what they want now before even waking into a dealership. You log in and compare vehicles on the Internet and unfortunetly for the Malibu, it’s simply lacking.
It’s too bad about the Bu b/c Chevy could have owned the sedan/hatch market in the US with a hot Bu.
I happen to own a Malibu 1LTZ in crystal red tintcoat and tan leather, and I love it! The Chevrolet mylink is awesome. I have the electronics and entertainment package, LTZ premium package, and advanced safety package (forward collision alert & lane departure warning) Which happens to be enough for me. . . I don’t know if you are blind or something but I see a new Malibu every 2-5 minutes in Minnesota. That is a ton of cars. I love mine, it has every option I could possibly imagine and more. Could it have more? yes. Does it need to? No. So don’t sit here and tell me that my $30,565 car is in fact a peice of sh*t when it is the best car I’ve ever owned.
Lutz sold Chrysler down the river when he agreed to “a merger of equals”. Daimler used Chrysler’s cash reserves to resuscitate their own moribund product line, and then found a gullible buyer to purchase the remnants of the gutted company. One of the things that Lutz is unrecognized for is the fact that he killed the ESX, a fully functional and timely hybrid concept which would have put Chrysler at the forefront of the fuel-efficiency race, merely because he was a “car guy”, and couldn’t see that a 2500-lb 70 mpg 4-door 5-seat diesel-electric had the potential to be a game-changer, only because it didn’t have “hyperformance” he craved. I still don’t forgive him for that.
Not to defend Bob but think we all need to look at the time lines here.
Yes the Malibu was developed under Bob but it was pretty much a done prototype shown to the press in 09. They raved about it as at the time it was well ahead of the class. Well the bankruptcy came in and shelved many projects for years including the Malibu.
At this point GM had no money to put it in to production but they also had other programs that needed fixed first like a W body replacement etc.
By the time the Malibu was brought back from the shelf as GM likes to call it Bob was not there to call the shots. It was Marks call to what and when.
Now to be fair to Mark he had a choice hold the car a year later and incoperate the fixes in the first year or send the car out to replace the aging old models who’s sales were sagging much even before the new Fusion. It was a Damn’ed if you do and Damn’ed if you don’t case.
The bottom line is GM did not have time to redo the entire car so what will happen is the present car will be with us around 4 years and we see a replacement for it and the Regal as this platform is near the end of it’s life. This is why the Regal only got a mild refresh.
As for Chrysler it was not Lutz that sold them out. He was the product man and there were those over him that sold them out.
As for the ESX I am not sure if it really would have worked out as you would have thought if it was that good we would have it here today.
Most hybrids today were not possible 5 years ago and most are better than nothing but are far from market changing. More work and investment are needed here yet and they all are doing just that.
Trust me if Fiat and Chrysler had a 70 MPG car available [they do still own the rights to this] do you really think we would have gotten the 500 and Dart?
Anyways back to GM. Back in the time before the bail out GM invested what money they had left to getting product done as much as they could. Cars like the ZL1, Malibu and XTS were all cars that were done at this time. They were all shelved till a later time when they could afford to bring them to market. This is why GM after the bail out had new product and Chrysler really did not. They got a mild refresh to the RWD sedans and the Re body on a Alpha and a Fiat that is all.
While the Malibu is a good car it really is a old car but it is better than no car at all. GM knew they were at a disadvantage here coming into this. That is why they released it before the Fusion. Also the fixes they have came much faster than just based on poor sales. They knew where the issues were and had already started to fix them.
The GM turn around is not going to be a home run ever model and this is not going to be a 5 year turn around for GM. To fix GM was no less than a ten year deal if all goes well.
I agree with you 100%
Maybe I don’t have much of a valid point with Lutz on the Nakibu but my opinion/views on the Malibu are valid. I honestly can’t figure out how anyone can defend the fact that the Malibu is lacking Technology/features when even GM knows it. I’m a huge GM fan hence why I’m on this website, but I have to state the obvious. GM needs to rather add a lot of features ASAP to the Bu or hopefully it is remodeled way sooner then 4 years.
I think most agree that the Malibu could use a little more but the fact remains it is not a bad car. The problem is in this segment it is much more competitive than any other and one year can put a car behind.
GM played the cars they had as that is the only hand they had this time around. I expect you will see changes soon.
Look at the Impala and that is an example of post Chapter 11 work from GM. The next Malibu will be on this levels. At this point they were not able to do as much as the car was late on a old platform that has had little development.
Sometimes you just can’t hit em all out of the park because of issues you have to deal with.
I think the best way to express this is the present car is just buying time till they can get what they really need done.
It could be much worse.
You are a true a**hole, WTF is wrong with you? Dirty lttle C**T
Who are you implying this to?
Everyone comes to this site to express the opinions they might have on GM. I do not think this kind of talk should take place on an exceptional site like this one. Everyone has different ideas and opinions, and it’s fun to go back and forth and listen to other opinions/views. Unbelievable that someone would feel the need to talk like this on a site instead of coming up with valid facts or personal opinions about the subject at hand.
I’m sure all of us can come up with some pretty colorful stuff to tell each other, but this shouldn’t be the forum to do so. It’s about cars DUDE…WOW RELAX
Just give them a Neg and move on. Trolls will be Trolls.
In fact the moderators here should remove trash like this.
Thanks for re-iterating the facts again Scott. I just wish, along with countless others, that things could have been better for this current Malibu. Hopefully time will fly and the fix for it will be here soon.