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“Complete Acquiesence”: How the Pontiac Aztek Happened

52 点作者 DavidChouinard超过 10 年前

11 条评论

mikeryan超过 10 年前
It should be noted that folks who owned Aztek&#x27;s loved them. This article makes it seems like the vehicle was despised across the board and that wasn&#x27;t the case. Despite their looks they were solid cars with a ton of features. If anything this is a testament to the necessity elegant design on a solid product feature set.<p>Including a good review from Car and Driver...<p><a href="http://www.edmunds.com/pontiac/aztek/2001/consumer-reviews.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.edmunds.com&#x2F;pontiac&#x2F;aztek&#x2F;2001&#x2F;consumer-reviews.h...</a><p><a href="http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/pontiac-aztek-gt-road-test" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.caranddriver.com&#x2F;reviews&#x2F;pontiac-aztek-gt-road-te...</a>
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sleazebreeze超过 10 年前
This story reminded me of the chapter in Business Adventures by John Brooks about the Ford Edsel.<p>The Edsel was one of the last large cars before economy cars became popular. The timing of the Aztek seemed similarly unfortunate. It was the first SUV crossover several years before crossovers became popular and it got flak for not fitting in with established vehicle types.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Edsel</a>
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StevePerkins超过 10 年前
I don&#x27;t really recall anything about the Aztek back when it was in production, but for the life of me I can&#x27;t understand all of this hyperbole about it. To me, it looks EXACTLY like half of the vehicles that I see on the road every time I drive to work. It&#x27;s not all that different from a modern Suburu Outback, Honda CR-V, Kia Sorento, Hyundai Tuscon, etc. It&#x27;s pretty much your standard-issue &quot;crossover&quot; vehicle (i.e. 21st-century station wagon).<p>Granted, I think there&#x27;s nothing particular attractive about &quot;crossover&quot; vehicles today, either. But they&#x27;re popular and ubiquitous now. So is there some special aesthetic flaw in the Aztek that I&#x27;m not refined enough to appreciate, or is the issue simply that it was a decade ahead of its time?
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seanconaty超过 10 年前
Yet I will always remember the Aztek as the car that Walter White once drove.
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MichaelGG超过 10 年前
I love reading these kinds of stories. Although, I&#x27;d like to hear exactly how they made it so ugly. Just like I&#x27;d pay to read about Windows 8 -- how did they ignore all the feedback? Did no one use it internally and realize it&#x27;s terrible for desktop use (open a PDF attachment in Outlook, and get transported to a full screen app!). I&#x27;d also love to see transcripts of meetings where MS decided not to leverage MSN into a social network, for instance. Or exactly how Google decided the &quot;see if phone is active&quot; permission should also give access to the serial and called&#x2F;calling numbers.<p>It&#x27;s neat to see these stories and just see, from the inside, how things end up broken or out of control.
Animats超过 10 年前
That&#x27;s Bob Lutz writing. I was just re-reading his book, &quot;Car Guys vs. Bean Counters&quot;. It&#x27;s fascinating to read how he thinks about cars. He writes that there is no part of the car market where an existing product can&#x27;t do the job. So it&#x27;s all about going for customer desirability, and looking for the &quot;buy trigger&quot;.<p>Cell phones and tablets are just about to that point, at least until somebody has a new big idea. They&#x27;re all little slabs with a touchscreen and some cameras.
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akjetma超过 10 年前
I&#x27;m surprised nobody has mentioned the tent-and-inflatable-mattress-and-removable-cooler-in-the-rear-center-console package. As I recall, these quirky features were simultaneously the advertised selling points and what made it unappealing, more so than its appearance. Like buying a car out of a SkyMall catalogue.<p>From Wikipedia[1]:<p>&quot;The Aztek was able to carry within its interior a standard 4 feet (1.2 m) by 8 feet (2.4 m) sheet of plywood and was available with two rear cargo area options: a pull-out cargo tray that held up to 400 pounds (180 kg) that rolled on built-in wheels when removed from the vehicle, or a versatile cargo net system that held up to 200 pounds (91 kg) and could be configured (a claimed) 22 different ways. Options included a center console that doubled as a removable cooler and a tent&#x2F;inflatable mattress package that, along with a built-in air compressor, allowed the Aztek to double as a camper. Extending this image was a seat-back mounted backpack, and a number of specialty racks for bicycles, canoes, snowboards, and other such items. An optional 10 speaker Pioneer stereo system provided a set of controls located at the rear of the vehicle for tail-gate parties as well as an unusual 2-piece tailgate with built-in cup-holders and contoured seating area for added comfort.&quot;<p>Most of these features are more fun than useful. Yes, I use backpacks. No, I don&#x27;t need my car to have a backpack. It&#x27;s like they started with a concept for a &#x27;lifestyle&#x27; commercial with young, beautiful people having parties and campfires and looking at the stars, and then worked backwards towards a vehicle from there. Like they literally glued on symbols of vitality to a vehicle.<p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Aztek#Technology_and_notable_features" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Pontiac_Aztek#Technology_and_no...</a>
S_A_P超过 10 年前
I think the aztek is a good case study in what it takes to make a concept car viable from an economic, government, and safety point of view. It also shows that all three of these factors are there to make a car suck more.<p>Accountants want the car to cost x dollars to make, so it means less body colored molding and more generic grey plastic panels that can be used on every color. It must be able to take a crash so the sleek hoodline needs to be fattened up some. Who knows what all conspired to foil the Azteks appearance.
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angkec超过 10 年前
Honest question: aside from the outside looks, what&#x27;s so bad about this vehicle? (I started driving in the year 2006 so Aztek has been off market for sometime.)
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squozzer超过 10 年前
I found the car an over-faceted monstrosity but since that time several uglier cars have been introduced - e.g. Nissan Cube - that didn&#x27;t seem to suffer the same level of rejection. So timing is probably everything.
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chrisbennet超过 10 年前
I remember it was on the cover of Autoweek. The caption said: &quot;Pontiac Aztek wins Best in Show award at Pebble Beach...Yeah, right.&quot;