Montezuma’s Aztek Revenge
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Montezuma’s Aztek Revenge
How the reviled Pontiac could lead GM into the future.
Posted Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 7:05am
’Tis the season for new car models. Fall is when the automakers start rolling out their offerings for the next year. All-new models arrive, redesigns hit the dealerships, and updates to existing cars appear. But obviously, there’s a wrinkle this time round: Both General Motors and Chrysler are fresh off bankruptcy. And you’d be right to assume there’s extra pressure on their new wheels.
Chrysler, unfortunately, doesn’t have much new stuff to sell. But GM has a new SUV, the GMC Terrain, that is already a sales leader and recalls a vehicle that still horrifies carmakers and critics alike. That car is the despised Pontiac Aztek, an almost universally loathed vehicle that established the paradigm for the Terrain: the crossover SUV, a half-car, half-truck concoction that is one of the fastest-growing vehicle categories. GM needs to remember the Aztek, because it represents the kind of risk-taking design that the post-bankruptcy firm will need to go forward. The temptation for the New General will be to copy successful market formulas, rather than try to define new market segments.
The Aztek, introduced in 2001, was an attempt to do something entirely different. It was aimed at then-twenty- and thirtysomethings who liked to hike, camp, mountain bike, and generally participate in the whole suite of Outside magazine diversions, but who might also want a young-family hauler with a bit more flash than your typical truck or SUV. So the Aztek came furnished with a host of outdoorsy options, an interior that could be configured according to the recreational preferences of customers, and an all-wheel-drive system for the snow and the mud and the slush and the rain. The design was boldly idiosyncratic, but GM figured it would attract buyers. It wound up scaring them, but at least it took no prisoners.
It’s easy to berate GM for always failing to see where the market is going. But in this instance it was the first to recognize the need for a new kind of vehicle to fill the crossover segment, which would grow rapidly in subsequent years. A crossover is basically a 21st-century station wagon. SUVs are usually built on the same platform used for trucks—and they often feel that way when you drive them. They also inhale gas. Crossovers, by contrast, are built on platforms used for cars, so they have better road manners, and they’re more fuel-efficient. There were some crossover-ish vehicles before the Aztek, such as the Subaru Forester, but these were seen as neo-wagons, or small/compact SUVs. With the Aztek, GM created something that had SUV size, minus the SUV stigma.
An innovative GM? Well, yes. GM can sometimes be, for all its detractors, troublingly ahead of the curve. And the Aztek was first in this mold. It was good at what it set out to do, despite the zany styling. And it showed that the four-door sedan, the hatchback, and the midsize SUV could be meshed. The Pontiac packaging was profoundly flawed, but the concept and engineering execution were solid. GM later rebadged it as the Buick Rendezvous and salvaged some sales before the product cycle petered out (the Rendezvous was much better received by families who wanted a more polished, less aggressively styled car).
In terms of innovation, the Aztek shares DNA with some surprising relatives, like Apple’s early, failed PDA, Newton, or its first stab at a portable, proto-laptop Mac. Apple (AAPL) didn’t succeed with these products, but the company began to define new markets with them. Obviously, laptops and notebooks would eventually become huge part of Apple’s business, and while Palm came to dominate the PDA market, Apple’s experience with Newton set the stage for its move into smaller personal devices, such as the iPod and iPhone. GM could banish all recollection of the Aztek, but the vehicle’s controversial design could be just the ticket as GM seeks to define how hybrid gas-electric-crossover technology derived from the Chevy Volt will appear.
Still, for anyone born in the 1980s or 1990s, the Aztek is increasingly the new Edsel, Ford's infamous automotive failure from the late 1950s. This would incline a swath of GM designers and engineers not to dare utter its sullied name. They don’t like the rather strange front fascia, nor do they care for the elevated rear end. They don’t like the lower-body cladding. But all these aesthetic objections are misplaced. The Aztek didn’t work, but it demonstrated that GM had the capacity to invent a product that people didn’t know they wanted. The General can still do this—the forthcoming Chevy Volt-extended-range electric car could be a game-changer for the company. But it needs to keep doing it.
And even though it might fail miserably … well, that’s the auto industry. Success is never guaranteed. But blandly hewing to what has worked, falling victim to fear rather than having the confidence to completely miss the mark from time to time, will not bring GM back to its glory days. Or even, someday, enable the company to return to profitability and pay back the taxpayer. So remember the Aztek. It may not have been great. But it gave birth to a new idea in the auto business, and that’s gold.
Photograph of Aztek by GM/Newscom.
Comments
It was the bad press.
I am convinced that bad press killed the Aztek. Because there are enough practical people out there to realize that a car this big, with this much everyday utility that gets this good of gas mileage and costs so very little is worth buying even if it is ugly. I mean come on, do you think people buy Ford Tauruses because they are sexy? No. They buy them because they are useful and have resale value. Bad press killed any chance the Aztek had for decent resale value. (and a side note: Someone said that Tek owners should have used cash for clunkers for a trade in on something better. Guess what? We didn't qualify because we get good mileage. Imagine that.)
I love my Aztek SO FLIPPIN MUCH. I am Gen-X. I like weird looking things (i.e. not a 'sheep' when it comes to styling). I traded in my Ford Escort Wagon for a brand new Tek in 2002 for 17k. 17K!!! And I get better than the claimed mileage. I have moved accross country several times. I can fit a full-size couch in the back, no problem. When used to go to parties and had too much to drink -I'd go sleep in my car-bed. I even lived in it for a short while near the end of college when my lease was up.
Now it has 120k miles and I'm a suburban working/commuting mom. When this car dies and I have to buy a regular minivan to haul all my crap and kids and not spend a fortune on the car itself or gas... I. WILL. CRY.This was the perfect vehicle to take me through my 20's and then turnaround and be exactly what I need in my 30's as well. How did they do that?
For all my friends and family that make fun of 'that hiddeous thing', I don't see them being very quick to return the car when they need to borrow it for the 10 million things it can do that their cars and trucks can't. And 10 bonus points for pretty much always being able to find your car in a parking lot.
I am not an outdoors type, but I do like to tailgate, nap in my car on my lunch break, tow really heavy random stuff in cheap rented trailers, and buy large over-produced self-serve furniture at IKEA. I am not going to 'off-road' but I might go spend the night on the beach occasionally. I am the target market and I think they hit the nail on the head. In fact, I was ready to buy one before ever seeing an ad for it - I saw one on the road one day and was like "I WANT THAT THING!" The only problem is that very few people agreed with me. It means that I got this awesome car at a steal of a price, but it also means I can't replace it with a new one when it dies.
Personally I don't really care what anyone else thinks, I am just happy that they made the car for at least a few years and that I was lucky enough to get one. We've since added the Pontiac Vibe to our household as well and are now mourning the loss of the brand and the risks it took.
Finally a light in the dark
I never cared for the Aztek's styling, but I have always said it was a great example of how American automotive companies can be more innovative and bolder than their Asian counterparts.
Glad someone else keyed in on this too.
Innovation is all there is to save American product engineering. However, it needs to be free. In other words, I do not think there is a place for VC or other forms of "meddling investor." That's pretty much what killed Detroit in the first place.
Aztec
This article is wide of the mark. The Aztek was not bold; it represented a callow misunderstanding of what normal (non extreme idiots) people would want from their crossover vehicle; a segment, by the way, which had been pioneered not by GM, but by the Subaru Outback of 1996, the Volvo XC series which began in 1998, and the Audi Allroad, which I believe also pre-dated the cynical, insulating Aztek. The Aztek was the automotive equivalent of those terrible Mountain Dew Commercials, or the Dell Guy ads, where an insipid generation Yer that appeared to be stoned instructed the American public to get "extreme."
It was a horrifying monstrosity; that much is true. But it did not represent so much a spirit of innovation as much as it did a hasty, fatally botched game of catch-up to try to capitalize on a market pioneered by cleverer carmakers.
Really, GM should scrap everything but the trucks and Cadillac. Nobody really wants anything else from GM. No one aspires to own a Buick or a Malibu. They should close all the extra plants they still have open to appease the unions (who now own GM). GM should really have ACTUALLY gone bankrupt so the productive elements of the company could have survived unburdened by the crushing obligations of the old company. The company didn't have to trade ownership to the unions; it could have broken all those contracts, and the good bits could have been sold to someone competent to make them work.
Now the government and the unions own a pension and benefits company that happens to make cars as a side product.
The Aztek is just a reminder of how pathetically this company was run into the dirt by the unions and the management AND the pathetic designers who must have been totally creatively bankrupt. It was a horrible company where everyone was bad at their job; that is why it bit the dust, and why it will still bite the dust, until we finally let the darn thing die.
Aztek = Failure. GM = Failure. There is no use in pretending anything will work, or that any lessons will be learned. GM is just an ongoing government liability that will probably take decades to finally collapse softly like a flan in a cupboard, to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars.
Styling was at least part of
Styling was at least part of the problem with the Aztek. If you remember the original Aztek concept car, it had a slightly lower roofline, larger wheels, and better rear-end styling. Unfortunately, this didn't translate well to the production car. They tried but the proportions were off, with the production-car wheels and wheel wells the Aztek always looked too big for its chassis. The concept also had less plastic cladding on the bottom. GM styling wasn't very strong at the time, it's obvious that the final Aztek design was cost constrained. Kudos to GM for trying something different but failing at execution.
I loved my Aztek
I loved my Aztek. I bought high-end model new in 2001 at a great price (total bill was like $22K). My friends jumped on the "make fun of Aztek" bandwagon; that was until they went for a ride with me. I put a couple hundred thousand miles on it in the first few years with all the trips my wife and I took. It never gave me problems until just this last year when things started to fail and I was putting more money into the car than it was worth. I ended up getting a used pick-up truck, but I sure do miss my Aztek.
The best part about the Aztek was the roomy interior (and the red dash and console lights, but that's just a personal preference). I used it when we moved to haul all but our largest furniture and my passengers had ample space in the back. The front seats were wide and comfortable. Even without the tent package (which I had, but never used), I had ample room to store my camp gear and to stretch out in the back to sleep with the hatch closed; I never had to deal with packing up a wet or dusty tent. Plus there were many outlets and speaker controls in the back so I didn't have to reach up between the front seats to access anything.
I admit the Aztek did have one flaw that bothered me: road noise. It didn't have good sound insulation.
Say what you will, but I think the Aztek is the most underrated vehicle.
Love My Aztek
My wife bought a Pontiac Aztek in 2002, here in the Pacific Northwest. She recognized it immediately as a capable vehicle that could take her to trailheads for backpacking trips, and found that it would carry five people with full backpacks for a multi-day trip. It had a comfortable interior for passengers with a dashboard full of funky details that don't look like your average suburban hauler.
The look? It is distinctive and different, and will not work for the millions of drones here who want to drive Toyotas and Hondas just like all their neighbors. Its design shape presaged the popular (but much smaller) Toyota Prius, which is SO loved by all those who hate the Aztek.
My wife loved her Aztek so much that she bought a second in 2006 to replace the first. She looked at the Honda Element but immediately perceived that the interior was cheap and shoddy. Backpackers here are heavy Subaru users, and the Subarus have similar AWD mechanisms (as opposed to full 4WD) and clearance as the Aztek, but are much smaller and cramped inside. My wife's regret about the 2nd generation Aztek was that it didn't have the black plastic cladding, which was convenient for leaning a backpack against when doing final packing.
I agree with the author's premise that GM needs to take chances, but I think the Aztek bombed because of the sheepthink of American car buyers, rather than any inherent flaw in the design or execution of the Aztek. We would buy another if we had a chance.
Bold Cars
I'm buying a fisker.
Bold Cars
I'm buying a fisker.
I loved my Aztek
I loved my Aztek. I bought a high-end model new in 2001 at a great price (total bill was like $22K). My friends jumped on the "make fun of Aztek" bandwagon; that was until they went for a ride with me. I put a a couple hundred thousand miles on it with all the trips my wife and I took. It never gave me problems until just this last year when things started to fail and I was putting more money into the car than it was worth. I ended up getting a used pick-up truck, but I sure do miss my Aztek.
Best part about the Aztek was the roomy interior. I used it when we moved to haul all but our larger furniture (back seats out) and passengers had ample space in the back (back seats in). The front seats were wide and comfortable. Even without the tent package (which I had, but never used), I had ample room to store my camp gear and to stretch out in the back to sleep; I never had to deal with packing up a wet or dusty tent. Plus there were many outlets and speaker controls in the back so I didn't have to reach up between the front seats to access anything.
Say what you will, but I think the Aztek is a very underrated vehicle.
Aztec/GM's fictional brilliance
"It was aimed at then-twenty- and thirtysomethings who liked to hike, camp, mountain bike, and generally participate in the whole suite of Outside magazine diversions, but who might also want a young-family hauler with a bit more flash than your typical truck .."
WTF? I WAS/AM in that market segment and never got the sporty marketing message of which you speak. Space for a mountain bike? Room for a kayak? If it needs an equipment rack it's just not a lifestyle vehicle.
My recollection from here in the X-sport infested Pacific N.W. is the Aztec had zero marketing message attached to it. Perhaps we were all supposed to intuit the blazing brilliance of GM. To clear inventories Aztec prices were quickly slashed. Orphaned Aztecs were mostly it was bought by intense single moms who boasted a coupon clipper lifestyle. God bless them. Hope they took advantage of the clunker program and bought a less embarassing Toyota this time around.
It' not so obvious - even now - that the Aztec was intended to be a proto crossover vehicle. The phrase and the marketing concept did not exist back then. That concept evolved a few years later when SUV's became ever so slightly uncool and associated with the wasteful fat ass Limbaugh lifestyle, at least in this region.
Honda marketers did what professionals do and energetically led us to that active life style mesage for their offering...the Element.
Part of being sporty is looking effortlessly sporty, or at least utilitarian. The Aztec looked like a stoned Korean designers idea of a Power Rangers/ Transformer salary man's fantasy transportation unit. I'm guessing it came from the same mind that gave America the Datsun Honeybee.
BTW I drive an uncool (by your lights) Silverado 4wd pickup. No racks required.Mountain bikes and kayaks routinely get thrown in the bed, sometimes both at once. Try to throw fresh caught salmon in the back of your Aztec (or your Suburban) and see what happens next.