Former General Motors product czar Bob Lutz has chimed in on Harry Wilson’s quest to secure a seat on GM’s board of directors, saying that the former member of Obama’s auto task force would be a “very very valuable” addition.
Working on behalf of four hedge funds, Wilson is vying for a seat on GM’s board and to get GM to commit to buy back $8 billion in stock over the next year. GM said that stockholders will be able to vote on whether to place Wilson on the board, it will consider the repurchase scheme.
According to an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Lutz said he worked closely with Wilson during the 2009 restructuring of GM, being the one member of President Barack Obama’s auto industry rescue team that Lutz interacted with the most leading up to GM’s bankruptcy.
“Harry Wilson actually spent a lot of time with me in product development and with other operations people, and he was the only one who got a really good feel for future potential of the company because he could see the products about to come out,” said Lutz, who retired from GM in 2010.
Though Lutz is not on GM’s board of directors, he considers that Wilson “has spent more time in design and engineering, more time touring assembly plants and more time visiting machine plants than any board member in the company.” Lutz also said that he would be willing to help Wilson in providing advice and guidance on GM-related matters.
Though fond of the idea of having Wilson on GM’s board, Lutz — who has decades of automotive management experience — is not a fan of Wilson’s share buyback proposal.
“I don’t know enough about the balance sheet, don’t know what GM’s cash pile looks like, but to be honest I’m always worried about share repurchases because it seems they are always a harbinger of the next downturn and then you wish you still had that cash,” he said. “In principle, I’ve been through share repurchasing before and in almost all cases you regret it later.”
Comments
Bob should have stayed at GM. Had he, the current Malibu mess could have been avoided.
Every current GM hit was touched in some manner by Lutz. The company is weaker withoutbjm
The current Malibu was developed under Bob’s leadership as Executive/Senior Vice President. It was then shelved for roughly 2 years to focus on other, more important products (trucks, etc.) and then brought back out in 2012.
Also, I would take up the fact that the Malibu is a “mess”. It is a good car. Sure, it has less rear seat legroom than some (not most) in the segment… but that was a limitation of the platform that was available. Outside of that, the Malibu has the best driving dynamics in the segment, is the only car to offer 4G LTE and Wi-Fi, and has decent fuel economy (not the best, but not the worst). All in all, not a mess, but more of a “needs improvement” vehicle. I think it’s actually pretty good given the constraints they had to work with (platform, etc.).
I am enjoying my 3rd Malibu, a 2014 1LT with convenience package, remote start, rear vision camera and 2.5 L with autostop.
The autostop took a few months to get used to the braking, and I found myself not “creeping” as much when I was in a line of traffic to preserve the stop mode (and gas). I have gotten as much as 36 mpg on a 90 or so mile ride to Gettsyburg from my home in central pa (mostly downhill!) and average 26 or so on the hilly commute of mine.
Only problem in 14,000 miles was an intermittent freezing of the myLink screen, which my dealer replaced after I produced a video of what was happening, taken with my phone at the instruction of the folks at GM tech when I was passed over there from Onstar.
There is a reason why JD Power named it tops in the mid-sized segment for Initial Quality: It’s a solid, good car in a crowded field. Can’t wait for the next generation!
(Full disclosure: I may be a bit biased as my first car was a 1965 Malibu SS Convertible, in 1975!)