General Motors’ product-advising Vice Chairman Bob Lutz hosted a breakfast meeting yesterday with automotive journalists in Los Angeles, primarily to talk up how well things are going now.

Mr. Lutz also touched on what he believes lead GM to become a company with too many brands, poor products and on the verge of extinction before being sheltered by a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and enough taxpayer money to burn a wet mule.

The problem? The wrong culture, one focused on being what Mr. Lutz called a money company not a car company, one that cared little about quality cars and happy customers.

When Mr. Lutz joined GM in 2001, he was told, “Bob, you care about the cars too much. We can’t have that.”

He also said GM isn’t the only carmaker that has fallen victim to that kind of thinking.

While declining to comment specifically about what has befallen Toyota, Mr. Lutz said that becoming too big isn’t the problem; it’s becoming too institutionalized and losing focus. While it isn’t necessarily too many brands and too many models, he said that can be a symptom of going in the wrong direction. He cited one German automaker’s foray into building SUVs along side its lineup of performance-oriented touring sedans.

“These guys aren’t getting it right because of a lack of the original spirit” that lead to a company’s success and growth, he said.

Sounds a lot like what Toyota’s top boss, Akio Toyoda, told Congress today.