Lutz brings creative flair to new GM cars

"Because of the scale of the company, you're just dealing with so much overlap. You're dealing with inattention. You just can't be all places at all times," Tynan said.

Jim Hall, director of analysis for 2953 Analytics in Birmingham, Mich., said Lutz is the "product conscience" who returned enthusiasm for cars to GM. But he wonders if GM will return to its old ways whenever the 75-year-old Lutz decides to retire.

"Product conscience lives at the top ranks of General Motors. The question is has it been institutionalized?" Hall asked. "And the answer is it has not."

GM has people who can carry on for Lutz, but it may pick the wrong person to lead its global product development, Hall said.

"The decision to institutionalize it must be made at the top of the corporation. It has to be an absolute unanimous decision to do it, because if it isn't, the old GM way will slowly filter back into the corporation. Analysis, paralysis," he said.

Lutz says Wagoner and Chief Financial Officer Fritz Henderson are smart managers who realize that GM has to have the left-right brain symmetry to be at the top of its game, so he doesn't see the company returning to its old ways.

"You need this balance between the people like me who are always pushing the product, the product, the product, and pushing for product excellence," he said. "But it's always got to be tempered by the analytical side of the house."

To Lutz, the recent array of products shows that GM has the most design and engineering capability of any auto company.

"I will say the stuff is pretty sensational," he said. "It's the best I've ever done in my career."

When asked if GM would be performing at the level it has without him, Lutz responded:

"That's like asking a coach 'Do you think the team would have done this well this season without you?' The modest coach is going to say, 'yeah, sure, because it's a great bunch of guys,' but then you say, why did they hire you?"

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