The Horrible Car That Ruined It's Company

In the 1990’s midsize SUV’s called crossovers started taking over the market. For example, the Honda CRV and Toyota RAV-4 were selling really well. They appealed to people who wanted a full size SUV, but could not afford one. General Motors (GM) really wanted to make one to cash in on this trend.

They wanted to make something new and affordable.The CEO of GM even said “40% of all GM products need to be innovated” (he actually said that). So, they started to design a car that had the utility of a minivan, but the sportiness of a sedan. They gave the job to Pontac, because they did not have an SUV in their lineup, and they had a good history of making amazing concept cars.

One of the reasons this new car would end up being so weird is because the designers wanted things one way but the executives wanted them another. This is one of the reasons that the car was so bad, because they just compromised on every single thing.

When the new Pontac Aztek was released as a concept, the guy who was in charge of the project said on stage that “If anyone has negative comments, you should leave.” That'sreally  just saying that your car is ugly.

When it was released to the public at the 2000 Detroit auto show people looked at the car and immediately regretted it!! It had ulgy plastic 3 spoke wheels and it had a further 18 inches of plastic all around the car. It had 4 weird front grills that were placed oddly. People just hated it.

It wasn't blessed with power either. It had a 3.4 liter V6, making 185 horsepower and 210 pound feet of torque which, paired with the fact that it weighed quite a lot, made it very slow. It also had full time all-wheel drive, which was prone to braking

The first version was so bad that only five months after they had to do a face lift that would make the car look a tiny bit better. But the car had a bad reputation and still no one bought them. Then Pontac sales plummeted and they had to stop making the Aztek in 2005. After the Aztek they didn't make enough money to save the company and in 2009 Pontiac shut their doors.

This was one of the biggest automotive failures to date. GM learned their lesson with the Pontiac Aztek. Don’t try and make two vehicles into one, it does not work!