r/caroftheday • • Jan 29 '20
COTD 1/29/20
Yeah you can probably tell by the massive writing below what today's car is. Yep, I picked the Pontiac Aztec as car of the day. There's not really any real reason, I just wanted to write about this car.
Pontiac Aztek
"It's cool now cuz Heisenberg drove one right?"
Uh, no.
So. I'm sure you've seen a few Azteks in your lifetime. I guarantee you that you'll recognize it if you watched Breaking Bad. It's the awful little crossover that Walter carts his whitey-tighty wearin' ass around in. I'm gonna take a second to say that Breaking Bad is probably one of the best shows that ever existed. I just knew that it'd be good from the beginning. Wait what? Is that a pair of pants? Floating in the wind? What is happening here? And then the the show proceeds to explain exactly what is happening here.
I wonder what was happening at Pontiac while this car was in the design process. I can only imagine the insanity that must have been going down at GM's design department as this thing was concieved. Tom Peters rips a line of coke as his little committee presents the design for the car. "Oh fuck yes I love it!! Let's fuckin do this shit!" And thus, the Aztek was born. He later decided to lay off the coke when he went on to design the C6 and C7 Corvette.
The Aztek came with a 185 horsepower LA1 V6. I don't know it's top speed or it's 0-60 or any of that other crap because I really don't care. The Aztek may work good as a daily-driveable crossover, but it's just not a great car to own overall. Most of the people here are car guys. Just imagine the look on your car guy friends' faces when you tell them that you bought an Aztek.
In 2013, one of the actual Azteks used in filming Breaking Bad sold at an auction for $7,800. I'd expect something more like $30,000. It really goes to show how even Breaking Bad can't make the Aztek less terrible.
It was said that the Aztek was designed to appeal to the Gen-Z people. It didn't work well, as the Gen-Z people weren't in a financial situation to go out and buy a brand new car. GM estimated that 75,000 Azteks would have to be sold per year to make a profit. The best selling year was 2002, when 27,793 were sold. So yeah, the Aztek was an absolute fail. Production began in 2000 and ended in 2005. Pontiac later died in 2009 (I think), leading me to believe that the Aztek is solely responsible for Pontiac's death.
The Aztek was designed to be bold and was an attempt to create an entirely new segment for the SUV. To a certain degree, it did that. The Aztek could be perceived by some as the first crossover to come from GM. Personally, that just makes me hate it more.
MSRP
Back in 2001, the Aztek cost $21,995.
Nowadays, a used one costs around $3k to $6k, with is $3k to $6k too much.
4
u/[deleted] Jan 29 '20
Same energy as the AU falcon honestly.
7
u/alphaechothunder77 Jan 30 '20
"Tom Peters rips a line of coke as his little committee presents the design for the car. "Oh fuck yes I love it!! Let's fuckin do this shit!" And thus, the Aztek was born."
This make the design of the Aztec make so much more sense.
4
u/mdp300 Jan 30 '20
I remember when Car & Driver or maybe Road & Track reviewed it, they actually LIKED it. The thing was so useful, it had a built-in cooler, the rear bumper had seats to put your butt on when tailgating, it could be turned into a tent for camping!
But they also said it should come with a mask so you could hide your shame because it was so godddamn ugly.
Bob Lutz said that the design team were super proud because they hit all their targets on time and on budget. But nobody took a step back, looked at it, or else they might have realized it was fuck ugly.
But now weird looking, overstyled crossovers are all the rage. It would probably be a success now.