BW writer responds to GM's Bob Lutz

General Motors’ executive Bob Lutz is not one to take criticism without responding. So in a recent speech, he noted all of the reporters and editors from the financial media — BusinessWeek, Fortune, Wall Street Journal and others — who have written or stated that GM’s products are boring and that the company has lost its touch.

One of the writers that Lutz mentioned in his criticism is BusinessWeek’s David Kiley, who decided to respond in an online column.

Kiley wrote, “When people like me say that GM isn’t building enough cars that people want to buy, it means that they don’t build enough cars whose designs can transcend the lack of fashion appeal and social acceptance of most of their brands and model names. That damage has been done over time, and it won’t be undone overnight. Sure, the Sky and Solstice are over-sold. But GM has made a hash of family sedans and minivans and it was unforgivably late to the crossover party.

“It’s going to take time and a lot more great executions of design and marketing launches, though, to fix GM. It’s going to take more time for GM to prove itself.

“GM is in a hurry to change the news cycle from negative to positive. But that’s GM’s problem, not the problem of the media covering the company.”

Read the rest of what Kiley had to say here.