Bob Lutz drives all the way into Detroit from ann arbor every day? Jesus H. Christ, that must be why they have to pay him so much, he has to buy all that gas.

Actually, according to the NYT article, it appears Lutz often chooses to fly in on his MD-500 helicopter. "Maximum Bob" action figure not included.

I am definitely NOT revealing my 10-40.

I don't believe GM actually let's him "pilot" anything to work. He must be flown.

To be fair an L-39 isn't all that impressive... it's a training jet mostly, you can mount machine guns on it but primarily it's a toy for rich guys who want to impress people by saying they own and fly a fighter.

Nice Iron Cross... what an asshole.

That's the German airforce insignia. Makes you wonder if it's a stock photo with Lutz photoshopped on the front?

From what I can see on Live Local, the man lives on a huge plot of land with no trees. That, of course, brings up another issue: is the above legal?

The cheap-ass only donated a grand combined to Dubya. Actually, that's his *personal* donation. He donated another $2k from his GM address.

Bob-o is far from the only auto exec that lives in Ann Arbor. Bill Ford does too, last time I checked. Oh, yeah, and like half of the Free Press's editors do too, and at least one of the NYT's auto writers. Me, I grew up here, and I only pay $430/month rent. No Barton Hills estate for me.

German airforce insignia, or does he roll on Independents?

He keeps his plane at Willow Run... and, if you look in at least one direction, there are huge stands of trees (for instance, across Ecorse Rd.) And, he wasn't born in the U.S. (in Germany?) and cut his teeth working for Ford of Europe and BMW... That German insignia on the plane might represent his ethnic background... in which case, I'm going to cut him some slack.

Chevrolet Volt fanatics are stoked by the spy shots of a Volt test car making the rounds of the blogosphere, but do the pictures show what everyone thinks they show? Yes. And no. It's definitely a Volt test mule, wrapped in the skin of a three-year-old Chevrolet Malibu.

Big news out of General Motors, where Vice Chairman Bob Lutz says engineers have started road-testing Chevrolet Volt test mules with lithium-ion batteries and the company has "growing confidence" the car will be in showrooms before the end of 2010.

Bob Lutz says the future of the automobile can be summed up in two words: Proportion and propulsion. That's a snappy way of saying big cars aren't going anywhere, but at least they'll be electric.

General Motors says it's nailed the lithium-ion battery technology at the heart of the Chevrolet Volt and is consistently achieving a range of 40 miles in road tests, thereby clearing a big hurdle to getting the car built by 2010.