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Redesigning General Motors with style, energy
Royal Ford
The Boston Globe
Bob Lutz sat down with the Globe for a wide-ranging interview at the New York International Auto Show earlier this month.
Here is an edited transcript of that interview:
Before you came to GM, you came to visit the New England Motor Press Association and you said, hypothetically, that if you ever had clout at GM, you'd get rid of Oldsmobile and make Cadillac a world-class car. That has happened. So what are you going to do with Buick?
I doubt I had anything to do with either of those because the Oldsmobile decision was made before I got there and Cadillac was well on its way to renewed health. But Buick will respond to treatment. We're seeing already that it's no longer seen as a vehicle purely for older people. Just like the Cadillac Sixteen signaled where Cadillac would like to go in terms of style and prestige, so the Velite [a concept convertible] signals the style and direction for Buick. The first production car that will be available in a few months of course is the Buick LaCrosse, which replaces the Regal but is a significantly new car. And that's going to be the first car that's a real car, as opposed to a concept car, that illustrates the new Buick virtues of a very luxurious experience . . . wonderful leathers, nice wood, beautiful little chrome details, German-style fit and finish; very, very silent inside, sort of what I call Lexus-like silence.
What would be the design cue for Buick?
A combination of grille and very fluid lines. . . . We missed it on the LaCrosse, but all the others are going back to the Buick portholes [the gill-like, chrome-encircled rings above the front fenders just ahead of the firewalls that defined earlier Buicks] as a feature element. It will be sort of back to the future in that the six-cylinder models will have three portholes and the eight-cylinder models will have four portholes. I was opposed to the portholes but when I saw the Maserati Quattroporte stole our portholes, I said, "That's it, now portholes go back on everything."
The next version of the GTO: Any changes coming there?
It depends on what you mean by the next version. We will have an '05, which is still basically the same body but with some very significant changes which I think will surprise and please some people.
You haven't said what they are. Hood scoop?
We're not saying, but we always knew that with a car like the GTO, you can't stand still. The next generation is a few years out so it's still too early to talk about, but the GTO will be a permanent fixture with Pontiac.
What's fueling the demand for power and rear-wheel drive these days?
People have disposable income, we have now crossed over the point where front-wheel-drive cars are optimal and that point is probably around 300 horsepower and bags of torque. I think you can tune a front-wheel-drive car to where it still feels fine at 250 horsepower -- the Saab 9-5 proves that, the 9-3 proves that -- but you get into the big stuff 300-plus horsepower, then you need rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.
You introduced a new Cadillac today that has an option for all-wheel drive. How important is all-wheel drive going to become across everything you do at General Motors?
I have gone full-circle. I was at Ford of Europe when we did the Sierra and Scorpio all-wheel-drive, Europe-only cars. I was convinced after the huge success of the Audi quattro. We were second with a high-performance, all-wheel-drive car. I loved driving it, it was a sensational driving experience, and I thought, "Man, this is the way of the future." And it turned out it really wasn't because the added weight and complexity robbed so much performance and fuel economy that you really kind of questioned whether it makes sense under a lot of circumstances. When I got to GM there was quite a desire to get all-wheel-drive versions [of certain models] and I looked at the bill and said we really don't need this. . . . So everybody agreed with me and we put it to sleep. In the meantime, a funny thing happened. It's really taking off in the Northeast and BMW sells 35 percent of their volume in all-wheel drive; Audi and Subaru are 100 percent. Now I had to tell the guys that may have been one of my less-good decisions. . . . We've got to double back and put it into more vehicles.
Where are small cars going to fit in? You've got the Cobalt, which says to me, small car, young driver.
Yeah, that's going to be a really slick car. This was our effort where we said, "Pull out all the stops." We are going to demonstrate to Americans and the world that the US can build a small car that's as good as any produced anywhere in the world. With this car, we truly had the vision of doing the best small car, the quietest, the most refined, the best handling, the most fun to drive, the best interior. The one thing I don't want is for the press to say, "Yeah, greatly improved over the Cavalier, but that isn't saying much. This vehicle still falls well short of the international standard for high-quality small cars such as the Volkswagen Golf, the Honda Civic." If anybody says, "Well, it's not bad, but it's still not at the level of the Japanese small cars," if that's the reaction, I frankly don't know what I'd do for my next number.
Full Article Here
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Royal Ford
The Boston Globe
Bob Lutz sat down with the Globe for a wide-ranging interview at the New York International Auto Show earlier this month.
Here is an edited transcript of that interview:
Before you came to GM, you came to visit the New England Motor Press Association and you said, hypothetically, that if you ever had clout at GM, you'd get rid of Oldsmobile and make Cadillac a world-class car. That has happened. So what are you going to do with Buick?
I doubt I had anything to do with either of those because the Oldsmobile decision was made before I got there and Cadillac was well on its way to renewed health. But Buick will respond to treatment. We're seeing already that it's no longer seen as a vehicle purely for older people. Just like the Cadillac Sixteen signaled where Cadillac would like to go in terms of style and prestige, so the Velite [a concept convertible] signals the style and direction for Buick. The first production car that will be available in a few months of course is the Buick LaCrosse, which replaces the Regal but is a significantly new car. And that's going to be the first car that's a real car, as opposed to a concept car, that illustrates the new Buick virtues of a very luxurious experience . . . wonderful leathers, nice wood, beautiful little chrome details, German-style fit and finish; very, very silent inside, sort of what I call Lexus-like silence.
What would be the design cue for Buick?
A combination of grille and very fluid lines. . . . We missed it on the LaCrosse, but all the others are going back to the Buick portholes [the gill-like, chrome-encircled rings above the front fenders just ahead of the firewalls that defined earlier Buicks] as a feature element. It will be sort of back to the future in that the six-cylinder models will have three portholes and the eight-cylinder models will have four portholes. I was opposed to the portholes but when I saw the Maserati Quattroporte stole our portholes, I said, "That's it, now portholes go back on everything."
The next version of the GTO: Any changes coming there?
It depends on what you mean by the next version. We will have an '05, which is still basically the same body but with some very significant changes which I think will surprise and please some people.
You haven't said what they are. Hood scoop?
We're not saying, but we always knew that with a car like the GTO, you can't stand still. The next generation is a few years out so it's still too early to talk about, but the GTO will be a permanent fixture with Pontiac.
What's fueling the demand for power and rear-wheel drive these days?
People have disposable income, we have now crossed over the point where front-wheel-drive cars are optimal and that point is probably around 300 horsepower and bags of torque. I think you can tune a front-wheel-drive car to where it still feels fine at 250 horsepower -- the Saab 9-5 proves that, the 9-3 proves that -- but you get into the big stuff 300-plus horsepower, then you need rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.
You introduced a new Cadillac today that has an option for all-wheel drive. How important is all-wheel drive going to become across everything you do at General Motors?
I have gone full-circle. I was at Ford of Europe when we did the Sierra and Scorpio all-wheel-drive, Europe-only cars. I was convinced after the huge success of the Audi quattro. We were second with a high-performance, all-wheel-drive car. I loved driving it, it was a sensational driving experience, and I thought, "Man, this is the way of the future." And it turned out it really wasn't because the added weight and complexity robbed so much performance and fuel economy that you really kind of questioned whether it makes sense under a lot of circumstances. When I got to GM there was quite a desire to get all-wheel-drive versions [of certain models] and I looked at the bill and said we really don't need this. . . . So everybody agreed with me and we put it to sleep. In the meantime, a funny thing happened. It's really taking off in the Northeast and BMW sells 35 percent of their volume in all-wheel drive; Audi and Subaru are 100 percent. Now I had to tell the guys that may have been one of my less-good decisions. . . . We've got to double back and put it into more vehicles.
Where are small cars going to fit in? You've got the Cobalt, which says to me, small car, young driver.
Yeah, that's going to be a really slick car. This was our effort where we said, "Pull out all the stops." We are going to demonstrate to Americans and the world that the US can build a small car that's as good as any produced anywhere in the world. With this car, we truly had the vision of doing the best small car, the quietest, the most refined, the best handling, the most fun to drive, the best interior. The one thing I don't want is for the press to say, "Yeah, greatly improved over the Cavalier, but that isn't saying much. This vehicle still falls well short of the international standard for high-quality small cars such as the Volkswagen Golf, the Honda Civic." If anybody says, "Well, it's not bad, but it's still not at the level of the Japanese small cars," if that's the reaction, I frankly don't know what I'd do for my next number.
Full Article Here
