For almost ninety years, the Chicago White Sox stood for two things: losing and cheating. To be a fan was to be a second-class citizen in the team’s own city, to suffer through year after year of shame, bad baseball and failed management. From Disco Demolition Night promotions to strange uniforms and weird players, the White Sox were a bad team that played in a cold stadium for a few fans in a city that didn’t care. Even when they built a new stadium, it wasn’t enough to put them on the map. Their city rivals were the biggest bunch of losers in the history of baseball. All they had to do is play good ball, win some games…nope. Losers. And not even lovable ones at that. Ozzie Guillen came to town and changed all that. He drew a line in the dirt and challenged the players, pushed them, and got their support. The players believed, played hard, and the White Sox started winning, all the way to the World Series. The style of baseball played didn’t matter as much as the fact that the players played, and hard. As a result, they have a pennant and a new, hard scrabble identity: winners and rough necks.

Perhaps Bob Lutz is for GM what Ozzie was for the White Sox. After all, Saturn is on the move, with a complete new lineup capped by the Astra hatchback and some aggressive programs designed to get people into their new cars. Pontiac is also on a roll, with the hot new G8 sedan crowning a newly aggressive lineup. It’s exciting to watch the plans unfold: develop new vehicles, borrow a few and strategically rebrand them, then bolster that product with bold customer service programs. GM’s warranty for new and used vehicles has been extended, and Saturn is offering shoppers home or office test drives and an evaluation checklist. Put it all together and you have new cars at competitive prices and excellent customer service.

Talk about walking the walk.
It’s not clear how much involvement Lutz has had with the nuts and bolts of these developments, but at some level his fingerprints are on the plans. What’s most important, however, has been his role as a rallying point for the company: it seems that he’s the one who has emboldened the General’s players to take a chance, to play hard and leave it on the field. The result is that people at GM believe in their cars again, believe that their cars are better, sexier and more worthy of a family’s investment. You have to believe in yourself before others will believe in you, and for GM the magic is beginning to take hold. At the Chicago Auto Show, the feeling of pride was palpable at the GM press conferences. You can make an executive say the words, but you can’t make ‘em believe in them. When they do, it has a much greater impact – and the folks at Saturn and Pontiac clearly believe in the direction GM is headed.

In between the hilarity of Ford’s Follies and away from the shadow of Toyota’s Towering new Truck, General Motors reveled in its new image. It’s a look that resembles a silver-haired, cigar-chomping auto executive, and one that seems ready for the fight of its life.

– Brian Chee
Send along a note to Brian: brianc@autobytel.com