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Filed under: Concept Cars , Economy , Sedans/Saloons , Plants/Manufacturing , Crossovers/CUVs , Chevrolet , GM , GMC , HUMMER , Pontiac , Saturn , Opel , Vauxhall General Motor's car czar, Bob Lutz, sat down with the little people of the blogosphere after GM's announcement that it would be reducing white collar expenditures by 20-percent, cutting truck production and eliminating retired health care for salaried workers over 65, all in an effort to boost its liquidity by $15 billion by the end of 2009. Maximum Bob addressed questions about GM's entire brand portfolio, saying, "Pontiac will be nourished with products" and confirming that GM is in talks with financial institutions about HUMMER, and that, "If we could sell the brand, we'd be interested in doing that." Predictably, much of the conversation centered on fuel efficiency and the General's plans to address the growing demand for miserly transport in the U.S. Lutz made it clear that "as...
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Filed under: Etc. , GM GM has seen plenty of tough times over the past few years, and even the company's top executives have felt the pinch. Executive pay was among the items cut as the General waded through multi-billion-dollar losses and immense market pressure, but after two years of cuts, the members of GM's top brass are getting their old salaries back. Top boss Rick Wagoner's base pay went as "low" as $1.1M but is now back to its 2003 level of $2.2M. Product czar Bob Lutz and money man Fritz Henderson also had their pay restored, and Fritz even got a raise to reflect his promotion to COO. Many of the pay cuts were voluntary in recognition of GM's market struggles, but even with the cuts in base pay, overall executive pay packages are worth a lot more than just the salaries alone. Wagoner, for example, was paid $14.4M in 2007, while Maximum Bob came in at $6.9M. [Source: Auto News (subs. req'd)] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Government/Legal , Green , GM Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, is a player in the auto industry. So when he sits down to have breakfast with reporters, you can bet that some juicy quotes will be delivered. Speaking on a number of topics recently at a breakfast with journos, Wagoner set the record straight that he does not share the view expressed by Bob Lutz that global warming is a "crock of $#!t" . Of Lutz's famously quoted remark, Wagoner said, "The comments weren't coming out of our company." No, just the mouth of your Vice Chairman. Wagoner also took some time to address the issue of states' rights when it comes to setting national emissions standards. Despite Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain all stating that they are for allowing individual states to set their own emissions standards, Wagoner thinks the lucky winner of the highest office in the land will change his or her mind after moving into the White House. He counts...
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Filed under: Economy , China , GM Click image for a gallery of the GM China Chevrolet Spark If everyone else is going to build cars like Tata's headline-grabbing Nano, GM's going to pile on, too. The Lutz cites GM's part-ownership stake in Wuling Motors, a Chinese manufacturer of sub-$3,000 utility vehicles as a possible source of a GM Nano competitor. Lutz went on to say that one way to make an inexpensive car for the developing world is to repurpose a legacy platform that has become obsolete. The tooling and design will have long been paid off, and there'll be plenty of experience from the manufacturing side, too. This is essentially what GM China is already doing with the Daewoo Matiz/Chevrolet Spark. It might smack of dumping an old product that isn't safe or clean enough for mature markets, but is "good enough" in other parts of the world. That said, it could also be a way to maximize the life of an investment while also providing developing markets with...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Maintenance , Etc. , Buick , Cadillac , GM , GMC , Lexus , Pontiac , Saturn The General's chief product guru, Bob Lutz, responded to questions regarding GM's reliability in the company's FastLane Blog's most recent video Q&A...
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