GM's New N. American Design Chief

CHEVROLET'S REDESIGNED '08 MALIBU will get a big sendoff this fall as General Motors Corp. tries to convince buyers it is a worthy alternative to Toyota Motor Corp.'s Camry and Honda Motor Co. Ltd.'s Accord.

“We tried to go beyond the competition in the exterior, interior, ride, handling and performance,” says Bob Lutz, GM vice chairman and product development chief.

Bryan Nesbitt will be cheering on the sidelines. At age 38, he became GM's youngest vice president when he was named in June to head North American design, a new position. When he was chief designer of the Chevrolet brand, he helped sketch out the initial design before turning it over to Malibu lead designer Clay Dean.

Unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in January, the Malibu's styling already has elicited favorable acclaim from the automotive press.

Nesbitt is perhaps best known as the designer of the former Chrysler Group's funky, retro PT Cruiser before he joined GM in April 2001 as chief designer for Chevy.

Once there, he led the design of the HHR small cross/utility vehicle, GM's answer to the PT Cruiser. Within nine months, he was promoted to executive director-design for body-frame integral architectures.

A bevy of concept vehicles such as the '03 Chevrolet SS, '06 Saab Aero-X and '07 Opel GTC were designed under his direction. He also had a hand in exterior theme development for a series of key production models, including the Pontiac Solstice and G6 coupe; Cadillac DTS; Buick Lucerne and Enclave; GMC Acadia; Saturn Sky, and Outlook as well as the Chevy Impala and Cobalt coupe.

Clearly on a fast track, Nesbitt was tapped in February 2004 to take over as executive director of design at GM Europe, based at its Adam Opel AG subsidiary in Russelsheim, Germany.

While there he oversaw design of numerous Opel and Saab concept and production vehicles. He also led the design of the Aura, GM's Epsilon platform derivative of the Opel Vectra.

Introduced a year ago, the Aura also has won favorable reviews. Now the personable young executive, who has an infectious laugh and few trappings of the traditionally egocentric personalities that used to dominate automotive design circles, is back in the U.S.

The future of GM's North American designs rest on his shoulders, a huge responsibility for the kid who loved to draw cars — especially coupes — growing up in Phoenix.

“We always had a coupe. My father refused to buy a 4-door,” he says.

Nesbitt was named to his new post last spring as part of a GM reorganization of its design staff aimed at accelerating its global product-development push.

Mark Adams, director-exterior design for GM Europe, takes over as GM Europe vice president-design and will be based in Russelsheim.

Keith Parkinson, currently executive director-body on frame architectures, was named Asia/Pacific vice president-design, replacing David Lyon. Parkinson will be based in Shanghai.

All three regional heads report to Ed Welburn, vice president-GM global design.

In his new job, Nesbitt directs a crew of 600, roughly half of them actual vehicle designers.

His schooling includes study at Georgia Tech and a BA with honors from the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.

In a wide-ranging interview with Ward's, Nesbitt reveals he does much more than just design vehicles. His thinking includes shifting customer preferences in areas such as color, textures, home furnishings, clothing; plus the burgeoning technology that impacts the way vehicle interiors accommodate laptops, connections to the Internet and consumer electronics.

From his European experience, Nesbitt has developed a keen sense of how far GM can go in seeking global commonality, and his routine meetings with his successor at Opel in Europe and counterpart in Asia provide an ongoing education in global design trends.

Nesbitt credits Lutz with strides GM has made in product development.

“With the Acadia, Outlook and Enclave (CUVs), you can really see the fruit of the changes he has made,” says Nesbitt, “in the quality of the fits and finishes of the interiors — color and grain match and the jewelry (bright work). It takes time to get the system running and get the product out. Now we're starting to see that.”

One change Lutz made is to separate interior and exterior design, which previously had come under a single manager, “because in reality they are very different parts of the business. Typically, only 80 exterior appearance parts are released compared to 300 for interiors,” Nesbitt says.

Getting Tier 1 and 2 suppliers in sync with that many parts is vital to producing a successful interior, he underscores.

Nesbitt says GM's vehicle line executives, who have overall responsibility for bringing a vehicle from design into production, were forced to make budget tradeoffs under the old system and it showed.

“They'd say, ‘My business case isn't balancing so let's go with a cheaper interior process — mold the instrument panel or go with a cheaper door assembly. Let's take some money out of there.’ That's why the interior was notoriously so bad; it became a place of tradeoffs.”

Lutz made interiors a priority, says Nesbitt. “He said they're a significant part of the purchase consideration and we have to get back on top of it.”

Exteriors are stressed because “that's what people see first. That's a big part of the emotional side of the business,” says Nesbitt.

“But with interiors, all of your senses judge it. You sit in it, and our minds judge very quickly: This is good; this is junk; this is crap; this is premium.' That requires a little bit different hat where you're really problem solving” by delving into manufacturing processes, features, content and trim levels.

“There's a lot to consider in the theming and the sketching,” he adds. Nesbitt is responsible for interiors and exteriors, and assures that both final designs complement each other, which often has not been the case at GM.

Nesbitt provides this analysis of GM's five brands:

The return of rear-wheel drive in some GM cars gives designers more freedom to create styling excitement, Nesbitt says.

“Rear-wheel-drive has a proportion with pretty high appeal. It communicates that I'm a little more a driver's car, that I'm a little more dynamic, so there's some value there.”

For Bryan Nesbitt's views on the limits of globalized design and other issues, go to: GM's New Design VP on Global Styling, Toyota, Minivans http://subscribers.wardsauto.com/ar/gm_design_vp