- Lutz Retires

Lutz Retires

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GM Vice Chairman Lutz Announces Plan to Retire May 1 (Update1)

2010-03-03 21:13:21.941 GMT

(Adds former colleague’s comment in the third paragraph.)

By Katie Merx and David Welch

March 3 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co. Vice Chairman Bob

Lutz, who helped lead each U.S. automaker over a 47-year career,

will retire May 1 after Chief Executive Officer Ed Whitacre

relegated him to an advisory role.

Lutz had said he planned to retire at the end of last year,

then on July 10 agreed to remain as head of sales and marketing.

Chairman Ed Whitacre changed Lutz’s role to adviser for global

design and product development on Dec. 4, three days after the

board removed Fritz Henderson as CEO and named Whitacre to the

post. GM announced the retirement in a statement today.

“I think he’s fed up with it,” says Thomas Stallkamp,

former Chrysler president and now industrial partner for private

equity firm Ripplewood Holdings LLC. “Ed Whitacre is in the

driver’s seat. It may not be fun anymore. It’s a shame because

he has done a lot for the company.”

Lutz, a former Marine fighter pilot, had guided GM’s global

product development and held other management roles since he

rejoined the company in September 2001. He had said he was

surprised and saddened by Henderson’s ouster in December. Since

changing roles, he has had no direct reports.

“I left because I’m 78 and the company has integrated my

strategy that producing only the world’s best products will

allow the company to achieve its goals,” he said in Geneva,

where he attended an auto show this week. “I am 78, and it’s

time I seize the opportunity to do something else.”

Losing Share

Henderson said that Lutz’ current role wasn’t an ideal fit.

“He was never a professional adviser. He wants to be in

the game,” said Henderson, who is now an adviser to Whitacre.

“Bob is obviously a superb product guy. He is also a great

businessman. Bob unleashed the creativity of the people in

product development.”

While GM’s vehicles won critical praise under Lutz, the

automaker continued to lose U.S. market share. It fell below

20 percent in 2009, the year the Detroit-based automaker

restructured in a U.S.-backed bankruptcy, from 28 percent in

2001, according to researcher Autodata Corp.

Lutz championed the Chevrolet Volt electric-drive car,

which is set to go on sale this year. He also influenced the

Saturn Aura and Chevrolet Silverado pickup, which won the North

American car and truck of the year at the 2007 Detroit auto

show.

“He brought a product conscience to GM that had not

existed for decades,” said Jim Hall, principal of 2953

Analytics Inc., an automotive consulting firm in Birmingham,

Michigan. “The system was driven by non-product issues. Lutz

basically said, ‘The product is what we’re here for.’”

Converj Cancelled

He also had advocated for the Cadillac Converj, a luxury

model based on the Volt, which was shelved in January, according

to two executives with knowledge of the decision.

He was succeeded as vice chairman for product development

last year by Tom Stephens. Whitacre has since added two other

vice chairmen: Chris Liddell, the chief financial officer, and

director Stephen Girsky.

Lutz had spent a dozen years each at Ford Motor Co. and the

former Chrysler Corp.

He also worked three years at Bayerische Motoren Werke AG,

starting in 1972, after his first stint at GM. He began at GM in

1963, and worked in a variety of positions in Europe.

Lutz is known for proclamations such as calling global

warming “a crock.” He likened boxy SUVs at the 2001 Detroit

auto show to “angry kitchen appliances.”

Between his 1998 departure from Chrysler and his second

time at GM, he was chairman of battery maker Exide Technologies,

which was known as Exide Corp.

“He’s got an incredible legacy and one that streams over

several companies and several continents,” said Michael

Robinet, vice president of global forecasting for CSM Worldwide

Inc. in Northville, Michigan. “I would be hard-pressed to find

a more influential person in our industry in the past

50 years.”

For Related News and Information:

GM stories by Bloomberg: 3341199Z US <EQUITY> CN BN <GO>

Autos and U.S. economy: TNI AUT USECO <GO>

--With assistance from JoAnne Norton and Jeff Green in

Washington and Mike Ramsey and Keith Naughton in Southfield,

Michigan. Editors: Jamie Butters, Ed Dufner, John Lear

To contact the reporter on this story:

Katie Merx in Geneva at +001-44-77-954-52608 or

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David Welch in Southfield, Michigan, at 248-827-7131 or

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To contact the editor responsible for this story:

Jamie Butters +1-248-827-2944 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .