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Bob Lutz Thinks Tesla is Doomed

posted by martyb on Friday October 30 2015, @03:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the taking-stock dept.

Bob Lutz, car-guy-to-the-max, former VP of GM and Chrysler, with time at BMW before that, wrote this recent article --
    http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a26859/bob-lutz-tesla/

The opening paragraph is gloomy:

Tesla's showing all the signs of a company in trouble: bleeding cash, securitized assets, and mounting inventory. It's the trifecta of doom for any automaker, and anyone paying attention probably saw this coming a mile away. Like most big puzzles, the company's woes don't have just one source.

and the prognosis goes downhill from there mentioning competition from Audi, the lack of enough dealers to attract more buyers and other problems.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @04:20PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @04:20PM (#256524)

    The qualifications of the messenger are often important. I'm not going to get advice about car maintenance from a data entry clerk. And I'm not going to get business advice from someone whose career is being a VP at two failed companies.

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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @06:16PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @06:16PM (#256586)

    Sure, we all know what happened when we tool physics advice from a patent clerk

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @06:22PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @06:22PM (#256591)

      we get stuck in a dead end for decades?

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @06:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @06:49PM (#256604)

      Are you comparing this guy to Einstein?!?

      Thats almost like a reverse goodwin.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @08:47PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @08:47PM (#256653)

      Yes, a patent clerk with a college education in physics. Hence, he would have the qualifications for being an expert on topics related to physics.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @06:38PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @06:38PM (#256600)

    Lutz was a product and marketing guy, made it to the top by supporting styling/design and engineering departments -- a very rare career path in the US auto industry (in recent history). At both Chrysler and GM he was not part of creating their big business problems, see a short bio,
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Lutz_%28businessman%29 [wikipedia.org]

    At Chrysler, he backed the Viper and made it happen (overruling the bean counters). I met him once at an event in Western NY State -- he had driven 6 hours in his Viper for lunch with writer/racer Brock Yates...and then turned around and drove it back to Detroit.

    At GM he backed a whole bunch of interesting and successful cars.

    He's a car guy, don't get him mixed up with the normal management found in Detroit.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Friday October 30 2015, @07:05PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Friday October 30 2015, @07:05PM (#256611)

    The guy has a giant conflict of interest too.

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh