Lutz Chides Media for Import Bias

With General Motors Corp.'s product offerings and quality improving, Bob Lutz says the biggest challenge he faces during his remaining tenure is changing the public's perception of the company's cars and trucks.

“We simply have to work very hard to change public opinion,” Lutz says at the Detroit Science Center during a preview of GM vehicles that will appear at auto shows next year.

While acknowledging that is largely the responsibility of GM's marketing, advertising and communications outfits, the chairman of GM's North American operations says the media must stop “perpetuating the characterization of a 2-tier automotive structure — imports and domestics.”

It was the second time in less than a month Lutz, who also is GM's vice chairman of product development, has criticized journalists for stereotyping domestic car and trucks as inferior to imports.

“It almost becomes an issue of equality,” Lutz says. “All we're asking is compare vehicle categories and try not to do this increasingly artificial import vs. domestic stuff.”

Lutz says he'd rather see a GM product finish third in a competition vs. all competitors, instead of first in a domestic-only road test. “We'd also like to see an end to the stereotyping and categorization of domestic cars in print,” Lutz says.