GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz: "The American Public Wants SUVs"


The case for GM Bob Lutz's resignation as part of the $15 billion US auto industry rescue is getting stronger by the day -- thanks to verbal klutz Lutz himself.

Click on play above to watch the GM Vice Chairman talking to Fox News about how Americans actually want big SUVs and trucks, and how producing small cars is bad for business. The transcript, via Think Progress:

LUTZ: Let me just get one thing straight here: You know, there’s a lot of talk about, well, General Motors doesn’t make the right kind of cars or General Motors built trucks too long. At $1.50 a gallon, the American public wants sport utilities and large pickup trucks.

BRIAN KILMEADE (FOX): They did.

LUTZ: No, they do now...Look at Automotive News and see that the Honda Civic in May sold 57,000 units, in November it was down to 7,000. Same numbers for the Toyota Corolla. The small cars are not selling at $1.50 a gallon.

GRETCHEN CARLSON (FOX): And why this issue's so complicated is that people do want to buy trucks and SUVs potentially but they can’t get the credit.

LUTZ: Exactly. That’s exactly right.

ThinkProgress titled its story: "Lutz Off Message." Indeed, Lutz couldn’t be more off message from the CEO of his own company, Richard Wagoner. Here's Wagoner on December 4, delivering testimony before the US Congress on behalf of GM:

We made mistakes...such as...not moving fast enough to invest in smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles for the U.S. market.

And here are some of the accomplishments the automaker has promised to deliver, as part of "GM's Restructuring Plan for Long-Term Viability:"

A dramatic shift in the company’s U.S. portfolio, with 22 of 24 new vehicle launches in 2009-2012 being more fuel-efficient cars and crossovers.

The Plan includes introducing this market’s smallest 4-passenger vehicle, achieving higher fuel economy than the 2-passenger Smart Fortwo.

Approval of a US bailout of GM and Chrysler would put the Detroit automakers under the direction of the US government for the first time in decades, with a new federal "car czar" to oversee all expenditures. What an opportunity to force Detroit to make good on its fuel-efficient promises.

Bob Lutz -- climate-change denier and all-around PR disaster on green issues -- just doesn't fit into that scenario. He's a symbol of what is hopefully a bygone era, not the start of a new one.

So, to repeat: If this thing passes and if the US Congress and GM are sincere about taking the auto industry in a new, cleaner direction, then Lutz has got to go.

 


Build a SUV

I can't help but think that we have the engineering and scientific talent to build a SUV with a great performance car parts that has enough horsepower to do the job, but gets 50 or more MPG and is cheap enough the rest of the World wants to buy them. Better yet, an SUV that uses easily obtainable renewable energy.

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