2005 Pontiac Aztek

It would be easy--shooting fish in a barrel easy--to disparage the Pontiac Aztek’s design. Like its Buick Rendezvous sister, the Aztek was built on GM’s minivan platform, and available with either front- or all-wheel-drive. It came in two flavors, base and GT, was powered by a 3.4-liter V6 mated to a four-speed automatic transmission, had an optional 10-speaker stereo, and a two-piece tailgate with built-in cup holders and a molded seating area for tailgate parties. Unfortunately the Aztek was blighted by thick bands of Pontiac’s trademark contrasting body side cladding, and a rear roofline that had critics claiming that the “GT” badge stood for “Garbage Truck”.

In its defense, the Aztek was designed as the X Games and extreme sports arrived on the scene. As such, its unconventional styling was seen as the perfect look for a generation that personified the active lifestyle, and took with them as many things and friends as they could carry. Wayne Cherry, at the time the director of GM Design, personally oversaw the Aztek’s styling, and often admonished its critics with the statement: “If you don’t get it, you’re too old.” To drive home this point, Pontiac made certain the crossover was available with items like a tent that slipped over the rear hatch when opened, an air mattress for the large cargo bed, a roll-out cargo tray that could hold up to 400 lbs, and special racks for snowboards, mountain bikes and similar items.

Given its versatile interior, available all-wheel-drive, and youth-oriented specification sheet, GM confidently predicted it would sell 75,000 Aztek’s per year, a number that had both Chrysler and Ford working feverishly on their own minivan-based crossovers. Unfortunately, the Aztek was priced too high for its intended audience, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 severely curtailed new car purchases, and critics branded the vehicle as a design failure before GM could respond. As a result, sales never exceeded 27,600 per year. However, GM reportedly needed to sell 30,000 Azteks per year just to break even on the model.