I bought a Pontiac Aztek for $3600 to reward you, dear readers, for become Autopian Members. Thank you! Now, as part of that deal, I’m going to have to sleep in the Aztek for a week, but before that: Let’s have a look at everything wrong with this machine.
I already gave you a sneak peek “first look” at our new Pontiac Aztek, and it looks nice. Remarkably so for a 21 year old machine. But aesthetics are only a small slice of the automotive pie; how does the thing actually work? Well, upon arrival, the answer was: Not well.
The first thing I heard when the transporter drove the Aztek to my location was the car going into park and then VROOOOOMMMMMMMMM. The RPMS shot sky-high, and then — boom. It was off.
What the? Was that the Aztek? I wondered. Maybe it was a different car? Then I fired the thing up and, nope: It was the Aztek. SUNOVA!
This, to me, seemed like maybe an intake manifold leak — something for which these 3.4-liter V6s are notorious. But it got worse. Not only was the motor revving to the sky, but the AC didn’t work even though the Cars & Bids description said it was just serviced! Then, on top of that, when I shut the car off, the key would release, but only in the accessory position.
I woke up the next morning with a dead battery.
I was not thrilled. I was expecting an Aztek with an AC that blew cubes, with an ignition switch that performed its basic function without issue, and with an engine devoid of an intake manifold leak. Surely these issues should have been noted in the auction description, right?
I texted the seller, who has been nothing but great throughout the whole interaction, communicating well, getting the car shipped for me, sending the title quickly — he seemed like a solid guy. But what’s with the bad ignition switch, lack of AC, and high idle? Here’s what he responded to my inquiry:
So when u bought it the person before me told me about that ignition issue and when I had it I never had a problem but if u look under the steering column the hole closest to the ignition if you stick a pen in there you will feel a lever and once you push if and turn the key off a the same time it will come out I never had to do it but I felt it when he showed me, but the weird idle and non working ac had to be a result of low voltage, when I dropped off the car to get shipped it was about 112 here and the ac was blowing ice cold. I’m sorry your having a bad experience right off the bat if there is anything I can do to help I’ll do what I can
Hmm. So I stick a pen into a hole on the bottom of the steering column and it releases the key?
Sure enough!
Damn, but do I have to do this every time I want to turn the car off? Either way, my car was dead, so I had to put it on a charge. I hooked up my trickle charger and waited a few hours (you can see the extension cord on the left side of the image below):
Then I set off to take the Aztek on a drive, only to realize: The problems were fixed! All of them! The ignition switch was working properly, the AC was blowing ice cold, and the engine was no longer revving to the sky with my foot off the pedal. Hot damn!
There are still some little issues with the car, like this switch panel is coming off the driver’s door:
And this exterior door trim is missing (this is driving me crazy; I’m keeping an eye out for this piece at my local junkyard):
And more importantly, there’s this odd sound shortly after I start the car:
But overall, for a 21 year-old Pontiac Aztek, this thing is in remarkable shape, and I have to say I’m 100% thrilled with it. Even the tires are only about three years old:
Even the underbody rust, which looks a bit scary in the photos, isn’t that bad, per my handy-dandy flathead-poke rust perforation test:
What a great purchase! Sure, there was an initial scare caused by the wonky GM electrical system that goes haywire when the battery is a little low, but otherwise, I’ve got a solidly B+ Aztek, which is awesome for $3,604. Look at how much other Azteks from Cars & Bids went for:
Did we get a smokin’ hot deal?
I can’t wait to drive this thing a bit more and write an Unironic Pontiac Aztek review. Because let’s be real: Far too many people love the Aztek because it looks weird, but what’s it actually like as a car beyond that wackiness? More on that soon.
Maybe DT can live in this ugly Aztek next? Ha ha
https://jalopnik.com/this-pontiac-aztek-proves-it-can-always-get-worse-1851581838
So now we know:
If the Aztek is a rockin’…
…there’s probably something wrong with it again.
Or… If the Aztek is a rockin’…
… you got ripped off on your purchase.
Just wait until you need to do plugs and wires…. requires hoisting the engine out to get at the back three. How do I know? I had it’s sister car, the Buick Rendezvous and found that one out the hard way. It too had the same 3.4L installed transverse.
Can’t you just undo the dog bone and rock the engine forward like on most GM FWD V6’s of that time frame?
Cars in general do not like low voltage. My XJR had a few electrical oddities when I purchased it earlier this year, but I figured it was a Jaguar, of course it has electrical gremlins. Turns out the battery was dated 2013. Replaced that with a nice fresh AGM, and all was cured. All electrical oddities disappeared. Have you checked how old the battery is in the Aztek?
Current ones are worse. You get Brake system fault warnings, Check engine lights and if the battery is bad enough, they won’t shift out of or into gear depending on what the vehicle is doing when the super low voltage seemed to be noticed.
Also AGM’s are really bad about sitting around without a trickle charger. once they sulfate, they are not long for this world.
If you struggle with the door trim I think you could just stick some black vinyl in there as a temporary fix and to stop it being so obvious. Just until you can source the proper part of course.
What are your plans for this car ?
I was going to suggest taking a Sharpie™ to it. It’s a Monet. “It’s like a painting, see. From far away it’s okay, but up close it’s a big ol’ mess.”
Exactly, Sometimes an 50% improvement is tolerable until we can do better later on, I did something similar to my sisters blue van, She has a white scratch in the door and a blue sharpie took the eye completely away from it, For a while at least.
Just because a fix isn’t perfect right away doesn’t mean it’s not a good intermediate step. Leave it better than you found it and all that 🙂
Jeez that first part was a scare!! I almost immediately thought !!SCAM!!!, as I’ve never heard of such electrical issues.Truly weird those!
FWIW i agree the exhaust sound is some resonant thing.Should be easy to track down once you’re underneath with someone working the throttle.
And yes that engine sounds good! I didnt know these were available with a V6.
Hey i just thought: is that key release button stuck on? It may not be a problem with the key or lock at all, just a sticky button mechanism.
Not sure i’m understanding it right though…
In my experience, this is normal for GMs. They really don’t like a low battery.
Yep. My 1999 Grand Am GT (my high school car circa 2007) threw “ABS” and “Brake” warning lights when I drove it to AutoZone to get a new battery after being jump started by my grandpa at the public library.
Would totally buy one of these. Not a good looking vehicle by any means but has more character that it’s Rendezvous cousin. Plenty of space and adequate power and features for the time. Although, I wish GM would have given the Aztek the same optional 3500 V6 as the Buick…the 3400 has proven to be pretty okay.
eh, the 3500 and 3900 had issue with VVT. the 3.4 and 3.1 before that had a faulty intake gasket that you need to change before you even realize it is failing as it just dumps coolant into the engine and makes milkshake with no outside indication it is happening.
What these things should have got was an NA 3.8 as the base and the supercharged 3.8 as an option. the Super charged version having a few small issues as well, but at least it was worth it to upgrade the weird known failure points.
A little scary rust got you a steal. And the rust king was the perfect customer for that car. I have seriously thought about buying one over the last 10 years because they’re so practical, even though they’re uglier than homemade dog poop pie.
Damn David. You really did that seller dirty in the first half there. Making me, a rando on the internet, start to think we’ll have to gang together and do what rando’s on the internet do to poor unsuspecting people who sell “faultier than they said” Aztecs to the wrong dude through the internet.
Then, when you think about it, even if the Aztec was faulty, this is a dude selling an Aztec on the internet. Who’s the real victim here?
Honestly, the bar on a sub-$4K car should be pretty low. Mostly runs and drives with no major structural issues? That’s a deal, even if it’s got a few gremlins.
The bar should be “as described by the seller.”
As described, but with the caveat that something like that may develop new failures or regressions during or right after purchase, because old beaters do that.
The battery being bad is no surprise at all, coming from Arizona. The heat kills any battery in 3-4 years or less, especially if a car sits.
+1 on replacing the battery.
I know it’s hotter in Phoenix and Tucson but here in Cochise County they last 7-8 years average. They actually last longer here than in Idaho where I’m from and the cold kills them in 4-5 years, max.
It doesn’t make any sense why sitting in hot(ish) conditions would remotely damage a box of lead and acid. And my experience is that it literally doesn’t.
I’m no chemist, but I can tell you from personal experience that batteries like to die in the heat. Particularly in BMW’s (I sell a lot of batteries here at the dealership as soon as it starts getting hot).
The professionals I’ve spoken to in the Tucson area since moving all basically say anything over 3 years is considered excellent battery life around here.
That guy in Breaking Bad sold his for $50, jus’ sayin’.
At that point in his career he wasn’t low on money, if I recall correctly.
I was just going to say “loose heat shield” but I noticed that the first comment nailed it.
needs an LS4 swap 😉
Good ol’ General Misery. My Grand Am of that vintage was baaaaaabied, but it still had bits coming loose and going haywire by 60K.
If the noise is underneath, I’m thinking cracked/broken flex plate.
Technically, it doesn’t even need to be running for you to sleep in it for a week so the fact that it runs at all is a bonus!
Suddenly I feel like David has excessively high expectations for his personal vehicles.
Our old Silverado has that exact same problem with the bank of door switches loose, it doesn’t bother us much but that is just because we only drive it when we have to haul stuff around. still a great truck though, my dad went ahead and recently had the engine rebuilt.
and for sure I would also bet the noise is just a loose heat shield.
Yeah, this is a pretty common issue with nearly every GM car from the 2000s.