Are you one of those people who love stray dogs, who search remnant bins at department stores, who eat beets when no one else will? If so, perhaps you should be driving a used Pontiac Aztek.
The Pontiac Aztek remains the poster child for how bad General Motors had become. It is an example of how focus groups, rather than good common sense, can dominate a process. No one inside GM every apparently had the courage to say what they really thought about this disaster until the production decision had been given the go-ahead. Auto writers gasp when it was introduced at an auto show.
Josh Max of AOL Autos drove one when it came out. He writes that it was hated right from the start:
"That thing is butt-ugly!" my neighbor screamed, loud enough for all of Brooklyn to hear when I rolled up my block on a beautiful, sunny Tuesday in 2001, navigating a rain-slicker-yellow Aztek test driver. The comment was only the first of dozens of raspberries and guffaws I absorbed over a week driving the Aztek in and around New York City. The next came from my own brother: "That's the Ernest Borgnine of SUVs." GM might as well have hung a "Kick me!" sign on the Aztek's rear bumper.
I wasn't crazy about the Aztek, either, but my complaints weren't about its looks. "The inside reminds me of an economy hotel," I wrote in the New York Daily News. "Everything is clean but ever-so-cheap; I half expected a mass-produced painting to be bolted to a door."
Max says when the car initially didn't sell, GM changed the crossover's outside gray plastic cladding to body color and added a spoiler to the rear hatch just a year later. It also dropped the price by $1,450. Though GM had projected it would sell 75,000 Azteks each year, it later revised that number to 50,000. The best year for sales saw only 27,793 sold in 2002. The cladding was dropped by 2005, as seen in the phot above, before the model was killed. To this day, it still has its fans:
"I've had my Red 2001 Aztek since '03, and I drive it every single day," says corporate project manager Ken Rhyno, who runs a 1,700-plus member Aztek Fan Club from his home in Port Elgin, Ontario, Canada. "I still get cracks from people, but the car runs great, gets up to 30 miles to the gallon and the amount of stuff you can haul in it is fantastic. People have got to understand it's not a Corvette. Its looks are not the point."
Rhyno loves his Aztek so much that he bought Aztekfanclub.com in 2006. "I was a member of the club and then the original owner turned it over to me," he says. "The last rally we had was in 2008, in Ohio. About 30 Azteks showed up from all over the country. We had people come up from as far away as Texas."
Musician Lenny Lee told AOL Autos, "I've got a 2003 Aztek and can't say a bad thing about it, despite the ridiculous-looking rear end. I bought it from a relative in '03 who liked it but wanted the same vehicle with 4-wheel-drive and a tow package. Rather than taking a beating on a trade-in, he sold it to me with 2,000 miles for fourteen grand. I couldn't turn down the price."
Lee says he hasn't taken his Aztek camping, doesn't own the tent accessory and doesn't pay attention to mileage.
"Let's just say it can get out of its own way," the Dutchess, New York resident says. "It thrives on neglect. The odometer just passed 200,000 and virtually nothing has gone wrong with it. I'd never intended to keep it this long, but it's been so dependable and still runs fine and the stereo system sounds good. I just drive it. I figure I'll let her come in for a smooth landing when she's ready."
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," says Rhyno. "People where I work drive Honda Elements, which I think are pretty ugly." Still, he says, "Nothing draws the fire like the Aztek."
