General Motors' announcement that Bob Lutz is putting his retirement on hold and continuing on as vice chairman in charge of all "creative elements of products and customer relationships" was an eye-opener.

I thought the new GM was all about the future. At 77, Lutz would seem to be more about the past.

Indeed, it was Lutz who declared to the world last year that he thought global warming was "a crock of (you-know-what)."

Inspiring words, no doubt, to the GM engineers working on alternative fuel vehicles as the behemoth tried to catch up with the Japanese auto makers who were already over the horizon with their hybrids.

To say Lutz is a veteran of the auto industry is an understatement. He started his career arting in 1963, worked at BMW, Ford and Chrysler before joining GM in 2001, and is known for his enthusiasm for big engines and building sales on advertising sizzle.

As Automotive News initially noted on the news of his return to GM:
"... the question being bandied about in advertising circles is whether that vast experience could work against Bob Lutz in an age in which selling cars is increasingly about amplifying peer-to-peer recommendations and data-driven direct marketing and less about the mass-market commercials that have long been the mainstay of most General Motors brands."

"(Lutz) is untested in the tricky new marketing world of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other Internet media popular with computer-savvy youth," the trade newsmagazine added in its latest issue.

Lutz's mantra is that Americans have the wrong perception about American cars, that if they really knew how good they were they would be buying them in droves.

Here he is on The Takeaway with John Hockenberry, a morning news show on public radio, earlier this week:

"I'll tell you another demonstration that (automobile purchases) are not rational is the rejection by many people of domestic brands. I'll say to some Mercedes or BMW owner, "Drive this new Cadillac CTS." "Well..." "No drive it. Just drive it for a couple of days, I want you to try it." The person comes back and says, "That car is fantastic!"

But it's a mantra he's been repeating for a long time.

Here is New York Times reporter Micheline Maynard in her 2003 book "The End of Detroit: How the Big Three Lost Their Grip on the American Car Market."

"Bob Lutz (argues) that imports' appeal stems from the stigma the media has placed on domestic vehicles. He believes Detroit's problems are primarily perceptual. And Lutz takes issue with the whole concept of dividing the market up between Detroit-based companies and foreign manufacturers. He said differences are vanishing. By 2010, he says, consumers will be weighing Detroit vehicles and the import nameplates equally, and choosing those that make sense for them.

But by then Lutz will be retired from GM (presuming he doesn't stay around until he is 78) and the vehicles he brought to market will long since have been introduced. By then the market will know whether he has managed to instill some excitement at GM - and whether the company will increase its market share - or whether GM's market image was irreparably sullied by its relentless emphasis on incentives."

It remains to be seen whether Lutz can bring GM back into contention with the Asian and European manufacturers who have bitten off so much of its market share.

But he's had eight years to get it right and the company is just now coming out of bankruptcy. In other words, he and his colleagues at GM seem to have gotten it wrong for many years and it's hard to imagine what new ideas he can bring to 'New GM' at this stage of the game.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth