Interesting Insights Into New GM...

[Chuck S.]

From one of the old family names:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/GMs-new-car-guy-Mark-Reuss-hftn-2963364459.html?x=0

[Jack C.]

Re: Interesting Insights Into New GM...

Aztek, Cimmaron, later generation LeMans etc. I would like to know who was in the focus groups that said they would buy one of these and what convinced management to build these POS's.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Interesting Insights Into New GM...

Aztek, Cimmaron, later generation LeMans etc. I would like to know who was in the focus groups that said they would buy one of these and what convinced management to build these POS's.

Believe it or not...I knew a fellow in El Paso that loved his Aztek.

I think he even bought another one after the first (always in white...gaaaggguhhh). That must have been about the last year they were made. To me, his devotion for that troglodytmobile was one of the unfathomable mysteries of life. He was maybe fifteen years older than I; our interests overlapped in military arms (He had a really mint old M1 Garand), but not in cars.

For most of us here, the Aztek was like eating haggis...it might taste great if we ever tasted it, but we could never get past the recipe or the appearance.

[Jack C.]

Re: Interesting Insights Into New GM...

LOL Chuck. I almost bought a Chevy Citation X11.

[Jim S.]

Re: Interesting Insights Into New GM...

I bought a Corvair, two Vegas, and finally followed it up with a Chevette for transportation for my two sisters to drive to college.

Maybe with only three car divisions, GM will bring back the fighting spirit of individual car companies scratching and clawing for new customers and conquest sales from the competition.
Jim

[John D.]

Re: Interesting Insights Into New GM...

Aztek, Cimmaron, later generation LeMans etc. I would like to know who was in the focus groups that said they would buy one of these and what convinced management to build these POS's.

Using focus groups was the problem....Bob Lutz doesn't use focus groups...

[Edward S.]

Re: Interesting Insights Into New GM...

Don't know much about the return of that fighting spirit - Just bought a 2010 Malibu. Like the car, found out that a price in the mid-twenties got me everything but a spare and a jack. "What's that you say" your not happy with a can of inflate your tire - for only another $100.00 dollars more you could have a donut and a jack. That deal did not sound to me that the new GM is any better than the old GM - they might be able to include run flats (instead of a can) just like big daddy Corvette.

[John H.]

Re: Interesting Insights Into New GM...

Using focus groups was the problem....Bob Lutz doesn't use focus groups...

"Reliance on data from focus groups tends to put product design decisions in the hands of people who know absolutely nothing about the subject at hand, and who wouldn't know a good design if it smacked them in the face. That's why there are so many bad designs out there." (Bob Lutz, 2003)

Bob had lots of great one-liners. I remember being in a Styling review with him the first week he was at Chrysler in '87 or '88, and he was being shown a new vinyl top proposal on the (old K-based) Chrysler New Yorker in the Exterior Studio. He ran his hand across the top material, and asked the studio chief, "Who is it that has this amazing fondness for this elephant-s c r o t u m grain on Chrysler vinyl tops?

[Duke W.]

Re: Interesting Insights Into New GM...

LOL Chuck. I almost bought a Chevy Citation X11.

Actually, that was a pretty good car for the era. The big problem with those X-bodies was overbiased rear brakes, which was a problem to one degree or another with most GM cars.

Despite having to buy a fitted block for my '72 Vega GT (I later got a refund later under GM's so-called secret warranty.), I bought a Cosworth Vega that I still own.

A lot of name brand sports cars AND THEIR DRIVERS. got embassassed big time by me and my CV at big "power tracks" like Riverside and Willow Springs, but it took a good engineer (me) to get the most of the the CV with just "tuning" modifications. It's a giant killer!

Duke

[Clem Z.]

Re: Interesting Insights Into New GM...

LOL Chuck. I almost bought a Chevy Citation X11.

i owned a new 1981 X-11 and it was a good car as i used it to tow my sons and my dirt bikes to the 4 hour hare scrambles we used to run in that time frame. he even learned to drive and took his drivers test in the X-11. sold it to buy a 1982 citation V-6

[Clem Z.]

Re: Interesting Insights Into New GM...

Actually, that was a pretty good car for the era. The big problem with those X-bodies was overbiased rear brakes, which was a problem to one degree or another with most GM cars.

Despite having to buy a fitted block for my '72 Vega GT (I later got a refund later under GM's so-called secret warranty.), I bought a Cosworth Vega that I still own.

A lot of name brand sports cars AND THEIR DRIVERS. got embassassed big time by me and my CV at big "power tracks" like Riverside and Willow Springs, but it took a good engineer (me) to get the most of the the CV with just "tuning" modifications. It's a giant killer!

Duke

i found if you used genuine GM brake lining and not after market the brake problem went away. i had a used buick century that had rear brake lock up till i changed to GM lining and the problem went away.

[Clem Z.]

Re: Interesting Insights Into New GM...

Don't know much about the return of that fighting spirit - Just bought a 2010 Malibu. Like the car, found out that a price in the mid-twenties got me everything but a spare and a jack. "What's that you say" your not happy with a can of inflate your tire - for only another $100.00 dollars more you could have a donut and a jack. That deal did not sound to me that the new GM is any better than the old GM - they might be able to include run flats (instead of a can) just like big daddy Corvette.

they leave out the spare to save weight and it helps with the CAFE ratings.

[Loren L.]

Re: Interesting Insights Into New GM...

For some vague reason, I'd have a lot more confidence in the veracity of our media reporter if he knew that the car of note was a 1953 Skylark, not a 1963.
As for Bob Lutz, it seems to me that his most recent claim to "holiness" may be in the proposals that he vetoed as opposed to to some of the turds that were allowed to be produced for one or two years. The fact that he is "worshiped" by so many is the prime indicator on just how far automobile manufacturers in the US have sunk. Let's have a giant cheer for the ten billion dollar failure, Saturn, and the fact that most of us who bought one will never look seriously at a GM product again.

[John D.]

Re: Interesting Insights Into New GM...

Loren,
Bob Lutz had nothing to do with Saturn or some of the "angry kitchen appliances" as he called them that GM made in the past...

He did however have everything to do with the Chevy Malibu and Cadillac CTS-V which are world class cars in their respective categories....
As a GM employe I hope the rumors of his retirement are just that..

[Chuck S.]

Re: Interesting Insights Into New GM...

For some vague reason, I'd have a lot more confidence in the veracity of our media reporter if he knew that the car of note was a 1953 Skylark, not a 1963.
As for Bob Lutz, it seems to me that his most recent claim to "holiness" may be in the proposals that he vetoed as opposed to to some of the turds that were allowed to be produced for one or two years. The fact that he is "worshiped" by so many is the prime indicator on just how far automobile manufacturers in the US have sunk. Let's have a giant cheer for the ten billion dollar failure, Saturn, and the fact that most of us who bought one will never look seriously at a GM product again.

Loren, here is a link to the video of the original interview. I think the reporter got it right. You can see the son and the father jostling for the limelight. Lloyd doesn't get it yet; he's old and nobody's interested anymore.

The original Skylark was a '53, but Buick built different versions of the "Skylark"...53-54, 61-63, 64-72, 75-79 Remember, Mark Reuss is only 46...his high school prom was around 1981-82. If Mark was like most kids, he would have been interested in something classic, but not his daddy's classic.

http://wiki.gmnext.com/wiki/index.php/Lloyd_and_Mark_Reuss:_Father_and_Son