Bob Lutz Says Global Warming is a "Total Crock of Sh**"

[Tideland Prius]

The “Green” movement will take this as a huge slap in the face from the biggest car manufacturer in the world. GM’s vice chairman, Bob Lutz, was quoted at a recent closed-door session with some invited journalists as saying that Global Warming was a “total crock of ****”. He also added that Hybrid cars like those made by Toyota “make no economic sense”, and that Diesel automatic cars such as those being pushed by Chrysler are only successful in Europe due to diesel being half the price of gasoline.

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hahaha. fire away!!

I'll start.

• diesel is NOT half the price of gas in Europe
• apparently a "car with range extender aka series HYBRID" is better than a hybrid
• Hybrid makes no economic sense, but MY business plan DOES and that's why I'm LOSING so much money

[F8L]

I'd wager he is also the type to be found using terms like:

"Shut up Hippy"
"antiprogress liberal"
"The earth is 6,000yrs old"
"Technology will solve all environmental problems"
"I used to think that way when I was a young and stupid hippy"
"The environment must be balanced against the economy"

He's an uneducated idiot with way too much power!

[Godiva]

And he's been *so* right before.

GM lost $38.7 BILLION dollars last year. They haven't had a full year in the black since 2004.

This guy still has a job because.......?

[Tideland Prius]

Originally Posted by Godiva

And he's been *so* right before.

GM lost $38.7 BILLION dollars last year. They haven't had a full year in the black since 2004.

This guy still has a job because.......?

because he's leading the way with an EV with range extender!!!!

[john1701a]

Apparently, the GM forum members have far more to say about this topic...
Lutz: Global warming a "total crock of **** - GMInsideNews Forums

.

[dogfriend]

Bob Lutzspeak Translation Guide

Statement: Global Warming is a crock of sh*t

Translation: I don't know much about climate science, but I do know that we need to move a whole bunch of big trucks and SUVs if we want to have any chance at stopping the hemorrhaging of cash.

Statement: Hybrids make no economic sense.

Translation: We don't have a vehicle to compete with a full hybrid, so we need to somehow convince the stockholders we know what we are doing. Hopefully they aren't paying close attention.

Statement: Diesel cars are only popular in Europe because the fuel is half the cost of gasoline.

Translation: We don't have any small diesel vehicles to sell either. How about a Tahoe?

[fairclge]

I bought my Prius because,
1. I thought and still think Gas prices could go up.
2. I like the idea of a different car and the technology in the Prius.
3. it's a Toyota
4. I'm in the military and in a small way I would like to say F*** off to the middle east and lower our dependency on oil use.
5. GW...

[malorn]

Originally Posted by Godiva

And he's been *so* right before.

GM lost $38.7 BILLION dollars last year. They haven't had a full year in the black since 2004.

This guy still has a job because.......?

He is a great car guy and a maverick.

[chogan2]

Given the context -- in a restaurant, with presumably friendly local press -- I'd like to hope he was pretty well lit at the time. If he says stuff like that in public while sober, GM's in worse trouble that I'd have thought.

Sure, GM just posted its largest quarterly loss ever. It was mainly due to an accounting change. But that's not the half of it. Basically, with the accounting change, GM gave up on being profitable any time soon.

Here's a quote from the NY Times:

"G.M. said yesterday that it would take the huge charge to remove net deferred tax assets from its books, signaling that it would probably not earn significant profits on its automotive or finance operations in the near future. The automaker said that the charge would have no effect on operations and would not interfere with efforts to restructure."

But even with all that going down, it seems self-indulgent for a person in that position to vent by publicly trashing other manufacturers' apparently successful strategies. That's not effective, it makes GM look as if it were incapable of change, and it makes them look incapable of being led by the market.

FWIW, I looked at the new (and hyped) Malibu. It's a nice car. Same interior room as a Prius, same trunk space as a Prius, same price as a Prius (far as I could tell), eats twice as much gas as a Prius. Get a clue, GM. It's not just the environmental issues. Poor fuel economy makes cars A BAD BUY in terms of total cost of ownership. Dissing other people's market-driven solutions will not stop people from voting with their dollars. It just makes GM look bad.

[priusFTW]

Originally Posted by chogan2

Given the context -- in a restaurant, with presumably friendly local press -- I'd like to hope he was pretty well lit at the time. If he says stuff like that in public while sober, GM's in worse trouble that I'd have thought.

Sure, GM just posted its largest quarterly loss ever. It was mainly due to an accounting change. But that's not the half of it. Basically, with the accounting change, GM gave up on being profitable any time soon.

Here's a quote from the NY Times:

"G.M. said yesterday that it would take the huge charge to remove net deferred tax assets from its books, signaling that it would probably not earn significant profits on its automotive or finance operations in the near future. The automaker said that the charge would have no effect on operations and would not interfere with efforts to restructure."

But even with all that going down, it seems self-indulgent for a person in that position to vent by publicly trashing other manufacturers' apparently successful strategies. That's not effective, it makes GM look as if it were incapable of change, and it makes them look incapable of being led by the market.

FWIW, I looked at the new (and hyped) Malibu. It's a nice car. Same interior room as a Prius, same trunk space as a Prius, same price as a Prius (far as I could tell), eats twice as much gas as a Prius. Get a clue, GM. It's not just the environmental issues. Poor fuel economy makes cars A BAD BUY in terms of total cost of ownership. Dissing other people's market-driven solutions will not stop people from voting with their dollars. It just makes GM look bad.

Very nicely said Chogan, i haven't posted here in a long time, but I had to jump in. It does make GM look bad, this guy should be fired. I will be very hard pressed to EVER buy GM again. In fact, the last GM I owned was a Chevy Vega back in 1975, back when I was young and stupid.