Tried to please everyone but ended up appealing to almost no one.
I’ve been looking for one of these for the longest time. Not because they’re cool, just the opposite. I know, as an owner of a ’72 AMC Gremlin and ’75 Pacer, what’s the saying? Those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Well, at least one guy found the Aztek interesting because he put it in the Dallas Car and Toy museum.
The original idea behind the Aztek was actually pretty good. According to designer Tom Peters, the idea came from GM’s West Coast Advanced Concept Center. The notion was to mix the attributes of a Camaro and a Blazer into a wide, low, powerful, off-roadish thing referred to as the Bear Claw. Ah, but with too many cooks in the kitchen, the project was doomed. The idea was to combine the practicality and off-road capability of an SUV with the performance and excitement of a sports sedan.
Instead, the production Aztek, powered by GM’s 3.4-liter V-6 and with an on-road-focused ride with an optional all-wheel-drive system, combined the performance, excitement, and off-road capability of a minivan. A much lower minivan. But, stung by years of criticism that it was a stodgy old corporation that produced stodgy old designs, GM pushed ahead. This was an era in which the General produced a number of vehicles that were determined to be innovative, regardless of whether buyers wanted them or not.
Pontiac introduced the production Aztek at the 2000 Detroit Auto Show, and the media avail for journalists was….well pretty weird. The company hired locals to stand around in a mock mosh pit. Something you might see at a punk rock concert. Some wore rainbow wigs, some carried signs reading, “It’s The Versatility, Baby!” and “Aztek 185 hp”. At the end of the presentation, the Aztek’s head marketing man jumped into the pit and crowd surfed. I am not kidding. This all actually happened in the real world. Have to give the marketing folks props for originality because it had never been done and most likely will never again.
RELATED Spot: Another weird car, the Bricklin.
The Aztek, a blatant minivan-in-drag monstrosity it was would be targeted toward “active” Gen-Xers, and more than just its aggressive styling, it included several unique features not found in your typical crossover at the time. Up front, there was a built-in removable cooler between the driver and passenger seats, maybe designed for tailgating or camping trips. In the rear, the back seats are removable, and with them gone, there was a large “living space” complete with rear-mounted audio controls for the Pioneer sound system and an on-board air compressor, which could be used to fill up a custom-fitted air mattress, which was offered as a dealer accessory. There was also an optional factory tent package, which could be assembled and mounted to the rear hatch to make a completely enclosed sleeping area.
Bob Lutz, who took over the top product job at GM in the aftermath of the Aztek, claimed that the design was presented to focus groups who felt about it the way we all felt about it when we first saw it: They hated it! Well, actually, Lutz claimed that the market-research respondents said, “I wouldn’t take it as a gift.” So convinced were the powers that be of the essential rightness of the vehicle, though, that this didn’t kill the Aztek, either. So poorly was the Aztek’s styling received that General Motors announced it would restyle the thing after only five months on the market. That didn’t help, either. Pontiac finally pulled the plug in 2005.
Approximately 119,000 Pontiac Azteks were sold during their production run from 2000 to 2005. Despite the initial goal of selling 75,000 units per year, sales were consistently crappy, with the highest sales year in 2002 at 27,793 units. So few were on the road that GM made its executives drive them just to show people that others were dumb enough to want one.
Now it seems that ugly is cool, says the guy who owned a Gremlin and a Pacer, and thanks to the passage of time, it seems people may be coming around to the Aztek. Sure, there will be those who still consider it one of the most awful things ever to have wheels. While others may consider the Aztek one of those cars that’s “so bad that it’s good.”
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my latest spot. Come back next Sunday for another one of my finds, along with some of its history, and have a blessed and merry Christmas.
Savage On Wheels 
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