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Bob Lutz Calls Out Perceptions And Politics In The Automotive Industry

Bob Lutz is back again doing what he does best: expressing his opinion in a good ol’ fashioned, take-it-or-leave-it kind of way. This time, in his column with Road and Track, Lutz took on politics and the state of the automotive industry in general.

The environment for automakers has changed a bit since Donald Trump added the “President” prefix to his name, becoming the 45th leader of the United States. As Lutz points out, automakers have long been used to sourcing from wherever goods are cheap and labor is inexpensive, working with the free market and letting capitalism do its thing. That’s not good enough for Trump, per Lutz.

However, what Trump may possibly take away, he will possibly give back. Although his rhetoric may make Mexico and other nations dirty words for automakers, the fact the same automakers may see the CAFE 54.5 mpg regulations torn away is a big win. Trump says he’s a negotiator, and for automakers, you win some, you lose some.

But, the moral of the story Lutz paints is this: automakers don’t move quickly. It takes years of development, engineering, planning and more to introduce a brand new vehicle. Cars are complex things that involve an incredible amount of facets to allow them to come together, quite literally.

This is where perception comes into play. Lutz calls it like he sees it. Every release touting U.S. jobs saved were going to be there anyway, and Mexico will continue to be home to plenty of manufacturing for automakers.

Announcements surrounding new plant investments in the U.S. aren’t because of today’s political climate; the investments have long been in the pipeline.

Former GM Authority staff writer.

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Comments

  1. “It takes years of development, engineering, planning and more to introduce a brand new vehicle.”

    This is true, but the Japanese do it in two year cycles. That’s the benchmark now get on with it.

    Reply
    1. Well the Japanese make changes in two years but often they amount to mild refreshes where they make incremental changes and evolve the same design over a decade vs. one big change.

      Case in point the Tacoma is a clear case of evolution vs. full on change. Camry the same and even with the new Accord while it looks new outside it is an evolved platform under the new shell.

      While they do not use the same parts they are still based on the previous parts and while it may be a better and new model it is still bases on the past. This is why their quality has been good over the years as you fine tune what you build you have little to mess up.

      GM is now approaching this stage as they now have new platforms that are worth doing this too. In the past the platforms were not as good as they needed to be and they did not have the money to fix them. This is why the W was around so long.

      The W was good for what it was but it really needed to be better.

      As for Trump even he knows that change takes time but the public has no clue. Milk it for all the PR you can is what he is doing and that is fine as what he is doing will pay off over time.

      He is working deals to force the MFG here but in exchange the MFG will see tax breaks that will make it more attractive to build here. Don’t be fooled the tax rate here is enough if they could they would move it all and will over time unless someone steps in to fix it.

      While some want to tax corperations into obilvian that only works if they can not move. Well sorry we are not the only MFG country on the planet and others will take the work.

      We see it in California now. Many MFG are leaving the state and they will be facing major issues in the future due to the lack of work. The state can not employ everyone and the service industry is limited. Just how many Starbucks do you need.

      I just had two suppliers move to the south and more are planning. Cragar Wheels a long California company is not moving to South Carolina. Centerline wheel is now closing the doors and if they are bought out I expect them to move too.

      Reply
    2. Like Scott3 already explained, the ACTUAL Japanese platform cycle is more like 6-10 years. If the Japanese actually redesigned a platform from the ground up every two years, they would not have the reputation for reliability they currently have. Especially Toyota. Realtalk; Toyota is probably the most conservative carmaker on the face of the earth right now. They are not reliable because of amazing or particularly great engineering. They are reliable because they don’t ever push the envelope, and when they do, they only do it in areas where they are well versed, or expand on where other’s tried and failed, only to have Toyota use them as a case study in how NOT to do it.

      Reply
  2. So Bob, why do OEM’s spend so much training their young engineers in affiliated race teams, where they learn extremely rapid prototyping and engineering on-the-run, and new 3D printers are being praised huge?

    I’ve heard from Jens Marquardt of BMW, Wolfgang Ullrich of Audi, Toto Wolff of Mercedes, and in particular, Doug Fehan of Corvette Racing, speak at leeeeennngggttthh about the design-speed advantages of training young engineers at the racetrack.

    But now, when a Government asks for design-speed, even a freakout wayyyyyyyy over there to the right government that all you folks on this site absolutely love, that’s too much to ask, right?

    Reply
    1. You may want to read the article before you comment…or maybe work on your reading comprehension a little, just a thought.

      Reply

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