No matter the age, a petrol head like Bob Lutz can't stay away too long from the car industry. In fact, even though GM's former vice president and product czar had retired in the May 2010, the 79-year-old has been providing advice to the firm's executives without pay ever since.Now, GM decided to formally hire Lutz as an advisor to provide counsel to the senior leadership team of the company."Lutz will be available to executives on a part-time consultancy basis effective immediately," GM said in a short statement. "He brings a wealth of experience built over the course of more than 40 years in the industry, including two stints at GM. He has also been a senior executive at Ford, Chrysler, BMW and was CEO of Exide Batteries," the company added.
Lutz's advisory work at GM is expected to include product development as well as marketing and communications.
"In most cases, it'll just be reinforcing the direction they're already on. I couldn't be more pleased with the way the company is being run, with the way the products are being marketed, with the pricing, and, of course, I'm very familiar with the future product," Lutz told the Detroit Free Press. "I think a lot of it will be saying, 'Wow, that's good, keep it up,' and occasionally I'll offer some critical comments."
