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And not once did ya ever use his proper title, shame on you. It’s Maximum Bob Lutz on first introduction.
And the Prowler is still at least in the top 3 for craziest things Chrysler ever produced. We all the know the limitations on the drivetrain but I still give them credit.
ELR FWIW.
Although I am a vinyl member and signed in, I cannot see the sweet Lutz photos.
Lutz really flipped that Opel’s axels for a loop. I bet that engineer had a salchow.
You’re skating on thin ice with that commentary.
Now back to Dick Button….
Yeah – that face he’s making in the Acadia and Volt photos…
I’ve seen it before.
It’s the face of “I’m being paid to stand here and say shit I don’t believe a word of”, “This is so fucking embarrassing” and “I can’t wait to get the hell out of here”
Exactly. The mouth says it all.
>sent me down the k-car hole
It was right there, man
I’ll never understand all of the adoration Lutz receives. The man was terrible at his job. Exide and GM went bankrupt when he was an executive for them. He presided over the Merkur fiasco at Ford. Chrysler was acquired by Daimler Benz in the infamous “merger of equals” while he was there. All he ever did was screw things up and develop cars for niches that didn’t exist.
Bob promoted cars for car guys like him, problem is most customers are not.
Eaton was the one who pushed to sell Chrysler to Daimler. I don’t think that would happened if Lutz was CEO.
Can’t speak on Exide, but I don’t know how you could blame Lutz for GM going bankrupt during the Recession, especially when he was only one of many executives and not CEO.
Merkur failed because Ford forced them to be sold through Mercury-Lincoln dealers who had no idea how to sell such a car. Not to mention, it took so long to approve the project that by the time they did, the currency exchange rate had flipped and made it hard to break even.
Blaming Lutz for Daimler-Chrysler is hilarious. He wasn’t in charge of that, and he was opposed to it. Bob Eaton was CEO, and he was the one who presided over that. Luz left Chrysler during the merger.
He’s the common thread.
Don’t be dull. Not when all of this is easy to find the answers to online.
Because he’s the hero enthusiasts deserve, but not the one we need.
/Something like that?
Can’t help but wonder how much history would have changed if Iacocca had promoted Lutz. Chrysler might be in a completely different place now. Sadly, we will never know.
Yes, if Lee had not Hank’ed Bob, Chrysler and GM both may be in entirely different situations. Bob is a car guy, through and through. Problem is, most consumers are not. My worry is his passion projects would have gotten in the way of actual consumer goods. That said, he may have rebuffed the “merger of equals” and gone it alone. Chrysler was on a roll back then. I loved my 1999 Grand Cherokee and liked my 300M aside from the reliability issues. I felt the first RWD 300 was a real downgrade in interior appointments from the 300M. Same with the ’05 and up Grand Cherokee. They may have had better chassis, but the touch points were just cheap.
And yes, he looks like he walked out of central casting as CEO.
Chrysler would be completely dead instead of just on life support.
Very possible…though the “merger of equals” was a disaster. I believe Bob was against it but have no verification. That said, the 2008 economic collapse may have made it a moot point regardless.
Possible. But they went bankrupt even with the merger! So it might be fun to explore a different universe where that merger didn’t happen. Agree that merger was an absolute disaster.
I’m not sure, you should read “Taken for a Ride” and see how Eaton just sold out completely. It’s possible the author was biased but I don’t see how Lutz could have been worse.
One thing that’s pretty consistent is that he likes a low button stance and a high gorge with medium lapel width, he’s pretty much carried that for decades regardless of current trends
All my suits look like that too… I’m also tall and slim.
That sure was a Lutz of Bob photos.