LOS ANGELES — Robert A. Lutz, the General Motors vice chairman, did his best to wisecrack through his surprise last-minute assignment to fill in as the keynote speaker at the opening of the 2009 LA auto show Wednesday.

Mr. Lutz took over the speech-making duties from Fritz Henderson, who was ousted from his job as G.M.’s chief executive at a board meeting in Detroit a day earlier.

“As you know, I’m kind of a last-minute substitute,” Mr. Lutz said in a deadpan. “You may have read something about it. Like G.M. has been doing very little to fill the newspapers lately.”

He warned that a question-and-answer scheduled to follow the speech would not be an opportunity to get the “true inside story” of Mr. Henderson’s sudden departure. “I am not going to give it to you,” he said. “It’s material for my next book — which I’ll write when I retire.”

Lest anyone think he might be the next G.M. executive to make a hasty departure from a key leadership position, Mr. Lutz set the record straight: “That will be, maybe, in a few years.”

He reiterated that timetable two more times during his remarks, as if he were trying to make a point about his prospects for continued employment at G.M.

Mr. Lutz, 77, announced his retirement last year — which was to have taken effect April 1 — only to rescind it shortly afterRick Wagoner was forced to resign from the chief exceutive post in March. Mr. Lutz’s name was floated recently to head G.M.’s European Opel division, but German union leaders expressed strong disapproval.

Mr. Lutz was not mentioned as a possible successor to Mr. Henderson; Edward E. Whitacre Jr., G.M.’s board chairman, said he would also take on the chief executive’s duties while an international search was conducted for a permanent replacement. Mr. Whitacre told employees that the search for a new chief executive may take as long as a year.

Asked if the timing of Mr. Henderson’s ouster was “crummy,” Mr. Lutz twice refused to answer. Later, he did remind questioners that he had promised to display enormous skill in the non-answering of questions.

“I can be Mr. Teflon,” he said.

In Mr. Lutz’s prepared remarks, he stressed that the industry was moving into the age of the electrification of the automobile and was poised at “a tipping point — as great as the one 100 years ago, when we transitioned from horses to horsepower.”

Tags: 2011 toyota sienna, l a auto show, la auto show, la auto show 2009, la auto show 2010, los angeles auto show

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 1:47 am and is filed under news media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.