It was Thursday, May 28, 2009, and General Motors was balanced on the brink of bankruptcy. Inside the Detroit Athletic Club, GM product guru Bob Lutz was about to address the Automotive Press Association for the first time since he announced his retirement in April. The fact that the lunch was not standing room only speaks either to the irrelevance of what news Lutz might have to share or the inability of tapped-out expense accounts across southeast Michigan to pony up the requisite $40 event fee. Or both.
Those who did not attend did not miss much. First, Lutz softened up the crowd with a few lines about gathering items for his impending retirement: bumper stickers. Let he among us who does not appreciate the universal appeal of bumper-based humor such as “Some Mornings I Wake Up Grumpy…Other Mornings I Let Him Sleep In” or “At My Age, Flowers Scare Me” throw the first stone.
But after that, the presentation was more or less warmed-over GM speak—a tune we’ve heard before. To summarize Lutz’s speech briefly, and with apologies to the Who: “Meet the New GM; Same as the Old GM.” In other words, “We’ve got great product in the pipeline and just wait until it hits the showrooms. GM will return to its rightful place in the pantheon of automotive glory.”
And Lutz may be right. There is some good stuff on the way. The Cadillac CTS Coupe is an example, and Lutz related the story of previewing the upcoming product portfolio to the members of the federal government’s automotive task force. “They loved the CTS Coupe, but I told them they wouldn’t be interested since it would have 560 horsepower, and I kept trying to show them the fuel-efficient models we have coming. But they kept asking me about the CTS and when it will be out. It just shows that normal people get turned on by great cars.”
But will the good stuff get to us? The glaring omission in Lutz’s speech, and the major hurdle between now and said good stuff, is bankruptcy. Lutz stated at the outset that he wouldn’t address the issue since he knows nothing other than that something momentous is about to occur. But until the bankruptcy issue is resolved—and who knows how long it will take for GM to emerge—the great products such as the Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon, Chevrolet Volt, and the Pontiac Solstice Coupe won’t be enough to pull GM out of the ditch it has spent the last 30 years digging for itself.
Kirk Seaman