The Pontiac Aztek Was Decades Ahead Of Its Time: COTD

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One of the most mocked vehicles of the past two decades is the Pontiac Aztek. You don’t have to look far to find someone who is still sour about the crossover despite the fact that it, as well as the company that built it, are both long gone. Yet, as we look at David’s new temporary home, maybe General Motors was ahead of the curve?

Modern crossovers are all about giant grilles, strange headlights, and matte body panels that give the illusion of a taller, more off-road-capable than the one you’re looking at. That’s the Pontiac Aztek! At least a new crossover usually won’t have interior design befitting a children’s toy. It looks like a lot of you agree.

Like Hugh Crawford:

Actually, you have to appreciate the Aztec for being so far before it’s time. When it was new, it was famously ugly, but now it just barely registers as unattractive when mixed in with the current crop of hideous car things. Tall for no particular reason with a multitude of extra air intakes and false grills on the front, strangely shaped windows, (but you can actually see through them)
Really the only thing that really dates it is that the driver can actually see over the hood and out the back.

PhotonicCannon also saw the future in the past:

Split headlights. Subaru-esq unpainted bumpers, acceptable ground clearance, minivan levels of interior space, sloping rear design… GM didn’t fail, they simply arrived 20 years too early.

Logan King fired a shot at BMW:

Wow that’s a great looking 2024 BMW.

Speedway Sammy noted how this vehicle doesn’t look like it came from the west:

If this buggy spent two decades in Arizona, it must been garaged or under a carport/sunbrella most of the time because it’s obviously not sun baked.

DialMforMiata delivered the most hilarious answer:

Obviously you wouldn’t want to park it where other people could see it.

You’ve probably noticed that a few of your favorite Autopians weren’t in yesterday. I was in Chicago fighting tickets and I think Thomas was enjoying some sort of Canadian holiday. Lewin picked up the import car beat and reported on the possibly sketchy Nissan Skyline currently for sale on Cars & Bids.

I think the greatest takeaway from that story comes from R53 Lifer:

Thank GOD for regulations. Can you IMAGINE what ill might befall this country if 23 or 24 year old imports were allowed to freely roam the streets?!

I get why the 25-year rule was implemented, but it’s been so long since, and car technology has advanced so far. Maybe it’s time for the government to relax a bit? Canada’s import rule is 15 years and it seems like the country’s roads haven’t turned into Death Race or whatever the government thinks will happen.

Finally, we stop at the depot of Lewin’s article about how a lot of folks would rather take a cheap Amtrak train to Saint Paul, Minnesota from Chicago, Illinois rather than fly. Honestly? The flight between the two cities is so short that you’ll likely spend more time getting through security than actually on the plane. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, but it’s crazy short. I’d take the train. Anyway, EXP_Scarred knows a thing or two about how Wisconsin rolls:

From the menu:

“Brandy Old Fashioned…………….$8.50”

Yep, we’re in Wisconsin, all right.

Have a great evening, everyone!

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21 thoughts on “The Pontiac Aztek Was Decades Ahead Of Its Time: COTD”

  2. I never knew what a brandy old-fashioned was until I went to my first Wisconsin supper club (the Hobnob in Racine). Then, last year, I was in Malawi on vacation and one night we went out to a Mexican restaurant in Lilongwe and what did I see on the cocktail menu? …a brandy old fashioned (!!)

  3. Thanks for the COTD shout out, Mercedes! I’m going to go celebrate with…a brandy old fashioned, of course*

    *- JK, because:
    1- Nobody here in TX knows what they are, and
    2- They’re vile.

  6. The Pontiac Aztek was ugly.
    The Pontiac Aztek was ugly.
    The Pontiac Aztek was ugly.

    It was ugly in a stupid, boring way.
    It wasn’t “so ugly it’s beautiful”.
    It wasn’t “ugly while having that petit je ne sais quoi”.

    And the worst – it wasn’t ugly in a fixable way, because it was made of non-ugly elements, just put together the wrong way.

    There was no quick fix to its ugliness, and most important – there was no identifiable, in-your-face, culprit element for said ugliness. There was no beaver tooth grille, Bangle butt, there was no one thing that you could just replace to make it less ugly.

    It simply looks not that ugly today because nowadays some brands are proudly parading ugliness. But in its time, the only real competitor for rock bottom design was the last-gen Ford Scorpio. I’m not even counting the first-gen Multipla, which was just weird.

    I don’t hate it, I don’t despise it, I would drive one if I had to, I would enjoy what it gives me, I just won’t stop finding it ugly.

        1. so ugly in beige, and that front was bizarre just for sake of being bizarre. I wouldn’t not take one if given to me, but then I lust after a Renault Aventine and any old DS and the Citroen C6 just for the rear window.

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