Autoblog

Click above for high-res gallery of the Buick Invicta Concept

GM Vice Chairman Bob "Maximum" Lutz published a new post today on the corporate GM Fastlane Blog that addresses the automaker's newest concept that debuted recently at Auto China 2008 in Beijing: the Invicta. The concept heavily hints at what the next-generation Buick LaCrosse will look like, but Bob points out that the global architecture underpinning the vehicle will be the basis of new cars for Chevy, Saab, Opel/Vauxhall and more. In the past, we would've expected those accompanying models to be rebadged versions with different grilles, headlights and taillights, but Bob explains how GM's new global platform sharing process is different than the rebadging of old. In a nutshell, he says that the money saved from sharing common platforms see will be put into making everything that customer's will see - exterior and interior design, specifically - completely different. While it's great to hear Bob talk about how GM finally "gets it" when it comes to producing common products across an empire of brands, it's something that other automakers like VW/Audi have been doing for years while the General kept feeding us "triplets" of every model it made. So kudos to GM for finally getting it, but it took 'em long enough.


[Source: GM FastLane blog]

Bob Lutz understands how the automotive media operates, which is why on the same day that General Motors announced its largest loss ever, he pops up on the GM Fastlane Blog to talk about some good news: retail sales in January were up 11.2%.

The interesting thing is that this record $38.7 billion loss that the automotive media's talking (too much) about is not at all attributable to GM's performance at selling cars and trucks around the world in 2007. Nearly all of it is the result of an accounting adjustment, which we explained in detail last November. It represents past losses that GM was legally allowed to wait to report and finally did in Q3 2007.

Regardless of the truth, sensational headlines that include the words "record loss" have been plastered across the interweb all day. Since it's too hard explaining how the tax system for large corporations works, Lutz instead pulls the old "bad news here, look over there" trick. He points out that GM was one of the few automakers to report a rise in sales last month at 2.1%. According to our By the Numbers calculations, GM was the only automaker with multiple brands to do so.

Whenever we add another blogger to the Autoblog team, I always warn him or her to grow a thicker skin. Part of blogging is exposing your words to a wide audience and having the fortitude to weather whatever is said in the comments. Blogging is all about that interactive relationship the comments allow, which is something Bob Lutz has learned lately. After having neglected posting on his GM FastLane Blog for a few weeks, Lutz was greeted with comments suggesting that he's bored with blogging, that the FastLane blog is a failure and that GM is done with this whole blogging fad. (Many can be read here on the site's last update post.)

In Lutz's newest blog post, which we referenced earlier in our post about his appearance on NPR, Lutz explains that none of this is true, and his absence in the blogosphere lately can be directly attributed to the demands of his "day job". Bob, we feel you, brother. Most bloggers on our team hold down a full-time job in addition to blogging and doing other things like raising a family. We'd be more than happy to meet with Lutz again and impart some blogging advice to help him juggle his day job as GM's car czar with the demands of blogging.

As for dealing with commenters posting "ridiculous" comments, we applaud Lutz for addressing and brushing them off his thickly skinned back. Remember Bob, they comment because they care so much.

[Source: GM FastLane Blog]