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As he prepares to retire, Detroit vet shares views on advertising and autos
THE AUTO INDUSTRY is losing one of its most memorable and outspoken executives as Bob Lutz moves to a senior advisory role at General Motors Corp. on April 1 and retires at year's end. Mr. Lutz, currently executive vice chairman-global product development, has worked for all the Big Three, and though he came close to the top job, he never quite made it.
He started his career in 1963 at GM Europe, jumped to BMW in Europe as exec VP-sales, then spent 12 years at Ford Motor Co. In 1986 he joined Chrysler where he rose to vice chairman, but left in 1998 after Germany's Daimler acquired Chrysler. The former Marine, who just turned 77, spoke about his attitudes on the industry, advertising and his colorful career.
What are some of your proudest accomplishments in the auto industry?
The thing I am most pleased with is that I think I've been able to effect a permanent shift in General Motors to where now everybody recognizes that product excellence is die most important thing that an automobile company has to focus on if they want to be successful. So, in other words, changing die culture from a corpo- rate-priority-driven culture that worries about vendor costs, labor costs, logistics,...