Myles Away:

Bob Lutz thank you for being No. 2

A friend once told me the great thing about not being in charge is that when the s**t hits the fan, you can take one big step to the side so none of it hits you. This is how I see Bob Lutz. He never got his chance to be the head of a major automotive manufacturer, but because he has been the perpetual sidekick, his passion for cars is uncompromising.

Whether you call it a “car guy” or “petrol head”, that is Bob Lutz. His work has not only led to enthusiast cars like the BMW 3-Series, Dodge Viper and Pontiac Solstice, but also to commercial successes such as the Ford Explorer and Chrysler PT Cruiser. The odd part is that his successes may be the reason for the enemies he’s made, and why he was passed over so many times.

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Is it time to respect Hyundai or just buy a used Camry?

Hyundai is a haunted company. It is trying to shake to ghosts of crappy cars. It is saddled with the image of former offerings like the Excel that, well, didn’t. This has been a great motivator for the South Korean company. It has been substantially raising the level of build quality since its introduction to the U.S. in 1986 because Hyundai doesn’t want to jinx its name, again.

The last few Hyundais we’ve has in the TopSpeed test fleet have been truly impressive. It fells like a Japanese car at a lower price. This is exactly what Hyundai wants because it is taking dead aim at Toyota and Honda. But what I wonder about is no matter how good its cars really are will Hyundai ever be taken as seriously as it’s Japanese benchmarks? > More

To GM: Please don’t let the Volt be your Ro 80

America is getting behind General Motors. That’s why you’ll see so much press on the Volt. We want to be at the forefront of automotive technology, and we haven’t had a homerun in a while. With that kind of pressure comes a great responsibility to make sure that GM is keeping its eyes on the big picture.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This George Santayana quote is so over used I almost hate myself for using it, but when thinking about the Chevrolet Volt, it’s too appropriate to discard. General Motors is bringing a revolutionary idea to the hybrid car market by using lithium-ion batteries to make an electric car that has a supplemental gas engine. It’s a leap forward that reminds me of another revolutionary car, the NSU Ro 80.

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Who are the new classics?

I’m helping a friend of mine’s father restore a 1940 Ford truck. He’s just begun a hobby of collecting cars and the Ford is a nice compliment to his 1964 Corvette Convertible. As I’m sanding down the bodywork on this old truck, it’s evident that the body lines are amazingly simple, but the overall effect is an elegant little hauler. It’s a true original, which makes me begin to wonder what’s going to be in my own collection. I now realize that I will have to wait another twenty years (or the lottery) for me to truly afford this hobby, and by then, I wonder what will be the new classics.

Immediately I have to narrow my criteria for selection. First to qualify, it needs to be affordable. I’m classifying the Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Paganis, etc., as exotics. They are instant classics that never have working examples in an affordable price range (i.e. Countaches never go for Camry prices.)

Second, no retro cars. Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger, Chevrolet Camaro and the rest of them are actually very good cars for what they are: fun and affordable pieces of nostalgia. There will always be a large group of people who will cherish these cars as instant classics. But what they are not is fully original, so I am leaving them off this list.

So with the field narrowed, I present three cars for induction into the hall of future classics.

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Shame on you GM; thank you GM

As all the domestic automakers are making a mad dash to develop “small but cool” cars, I wish someone heard me back in 2005, just so I could be able to say “I told you so”. The day was when General Motors announced that it would not buy the Fiat Group and instead would pay them to go away. That was a day I knew a mistake was made.

For those of you who don’t remember, GM had a firm hold on Fiat. In fact, Fiat had negotiated a put option that could make GM buy the whole company if Fiat said so. Well as debt began mounting, Fiat needed saving. It was looking like Fiat was going to exercise its option and have Generals Motors buy them. But like a middle aged man divorcing his first wife, GM just wrote a big check to get rid of the Italian girl who was past her prime. The cost: $2 billion, and it may not have taken much more for GM to buy Fiat outright.

For this I say shame on you General Motors for not noticing the wealth that Italian design could have brought to your line up. And Fiat was one of the few companies out there that actually could have learned a lesson on build quality from GM. But I don’t need to dwell on it; the fact that it’s selling Aveos instead of 500s is punishment enough.

Only that’s not the whole story. In fact, I may need to say thank you GM. If General Motors had not abandoned Fiat, there may not be a Fiat Group today.

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