The Pontiac Aztek has followed a similar cycle as the Chrysler PT Cruiser, Fiat Multipla and a number of “quirkly-looking” automobiles that have eschewed contemporary design trends. At first, everyone loves these machines. Then, after a very short honeymoon, the world hates them. These weirdo-mobiles stay in this “hideous and uncool” category for about 10 to 15 years, and then, once they’re become rather rare, the world decides they’re cool again. But what if we ignore all of these ebbs and flows in our collective design-conscious and instead just evaluate the Pontiac Aztek as a car? What if we look at it unironically? Let’s do that.
I’m not writing an “objective” review of the Pontiac Aztek. The truth is that, in order to properly review a machine, you do have to account for emotional appeal. Cars like the Jeep Wrangler and F-150 Raptor and Tesla Cybertruck would otherwise score rather poorly, as they trade far too many compromises for attributes that really don’t strictly matter to most people. But millions of folks love these machines for a reason, and understanding that reason and at least folding that it into the stack of notes that make up a car review — it’s important. I mention this only because, while this is an unironic review of the Aztek, it’s not an emotionless one. I’m not going to tell you the Aztek is good because it’s now cool to be uncool, but I’m also not going to ignore how the car makes me feel when I drive it.
With that out of the way, let me begin by reintroducing my beloved new-to-me 2003 Pontiac Aztek — this beige beauty right here:
Though the car arrived from Arizona with a drained battery that caused the car to go absolutely haywire, a quick trickle charge had the Aztek back in tip-top shape. It’s got a bit of missing trim on the outside of the rear passenger’s side door, the window switch panel on the interior driver’s door is a bit loose, and there are some scratches and dings and rust spots, but overall this Aztek is gorgeous. The interior, especially, has held up nicely, plus the AC blows cubes (though I hear it’s rare for it to actually work on Azteks). This is not a junky example of the Breaking Bad star-car, it’s actually a relative creampuff. To have snagged it for only $3,604 is incredible.
It couldn’t have popped up on Cars & Bids at a better time. I was in the process of moving from Studio City to Santa Monica, and while I have managed to sell off lots of the junk I owned when I lived in Michigan, the truth is: I transported far too much stuff to California. So there was plenty of junk to move.
It’s Extremely Comfortable
My plan was to use the Aztek for the boxes and smaller items, and then I’d rent a pickup truck to transport my giant couch. So I hit the 405 and headed from Santa Monica to Studio City to pick up all my junk.
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Right away I noticed: The Aztek rides really nicely!
The Pontiac Aztek has a MacPherson strut front suspension and a Torsion Beam in the rear, with coil springs all the way around. It’s top-heavy and a bit roll-y in the turns, but it’s soft and rides very well. Sitting on that comfy camouflage bucket seat made me feel like I was floating along the 405, sitting up tall. Actually, the ride reminded me of my 1994 Chrysler Voyager minivan — I was seated at about the height I’d be at if I were standing on the road, and the ride was floaty and just downright pleasant.
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The stereo system is better than you’d think, with speakers right near the A-pillars and in the doors. The steering is a buttery hydraulic system that’s a bit on the heavier side compared to some modern electric racks, but overall the car is set up for comfort in almost every way.
The 3.4-liter V6 pulling that 3,800-pound machine around via the front wheels is powerful enough at 185 ponies, probably getting the machine from 0-60 in around 9 or 10 seconds if you really get on it. The powertrain isn’t really remarkable in any way — not great, but it’s also not worth complaining about; it fades into the background.
Visibility all the way around is awesome, again reminding me of my 1994 Chrysler minivan. I don’t have much else to say about the driving experience. It’s not sporty, but it’s supremely comfortable, and just generally a pleasant place to spend time. Even my girlfriend Elise enjoyed it. “I liked the Aztek! Very comfortable ride, spacious, retro vibes,” she just texted me.
It’s A Legitimate Pickup Truck Alternative
I do realize how blasphemous that subhead above is calling an Aztek a pickup truck alternative — that’s ridiculous! But hear me out.
So many modern “pickup trucks’ have narrow 4.5-foot beds — see Rivian R1T, Ford Maverick, etc. And I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt: The Aztek is easily as useful as any of those trucks for actual transport of junk. Just look at the photos above to see how much fits inside!
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To be sure, I was expecting the Aztek to be versatile, but I wasn’t expecting it to be able to swallow literally everything in my apartment in just three runs. And what’s more, I was utterly blown away when I managed to shove an eight-foot-long couch in the back using nothing more than just a couple of ratchet straps to hold the couch in and the rear glass down.
The 42-inch opening of the rear door, the ease by which one can remove the second row of seats, the great tie-down points in the cargo area, and especially that tailgate take the Aztek’s versatility to a new level. It offers much of the usefulness of a pickup truck, but the ride of a car. Honestly, you know what that sounds a lot like? A minivan. And that’s exactly the vibes I got when I drove the Aztek — “Wow, this feels shockingly like my 1994 Chrysler minivan.”
It’s no surprise, then, that the Aztek is built on GM’s U-Body minivan platform.
This might make you think: “So it rides nice and fits a lot of stuff. So it’s just a five-seat minivan? Why not just get a van?”
This is where the emotional component of this Aztek comes in. Yes, it’s essentially a minivan with five seats and a tailgate — if there’s anything to take away from this review, it’s just that. Functionally, it’s a van. But we don’t buy cars solely because of what they are “functionally,” we care about what they are holistically, and the Aztek manages to add some soul to its legitimate versatility.
I took the Aztek to Bob’s Big Boy, a legendary Friday night car show in Burbank, California, and I didn’t think to actually park it in the show. So I parked it on the street, and I shit you not: As soon as I stepped out of the car, someone asked if he could take photos of it.
Everyone loves the Aztek. It’s wacky, it’s charming, it’s fun, but it manages to be more than just that — it’s actually a good and useful car. It’s versatile and comfortable and easy to see out of and not horribly unreliable. It’s a legitimately enjoyable machine, which is why Motor Trend said this back when the car came out in the early 2000s:
With 9K miles on the clock, the Aztek may not have produced any converts–but it has garnered the respect of naysayers. Not a small triumph
The world didn’t hate it when it was new, the world hated it for 15 years, and now the world has come back around. But don’t think it’s just that classic quirky-car love-hate-love cycle, for the Aztek is actually good. It always was.
The Aztec was ahead of its time for sure. It was one of the very first crossovers that now dominate the landscape. Not even irony nor nostalgia can make me like the way it looks, but I respect it for what it really was. A harbinger of things to come.
In 2001, I was on a business trip and had to rent a vehicle – and was given the keys to an Aztec. I was not thrilled because I was well aware of the public disdain for the vehicle, and frankly I thought they were just ugly.
I also remember how much I enjoyed driving it and how I could see out every window with ease. It also sat up higher than other vehicles that I was used to riding in.
I still would not have bought it because I did not like the look of it, but I don’t judge folks who did have one because I know how nice they were inside. At least mine was for the few days I was in charge of it…
I can totally see the value in an Aztek. I owned a 2005 Malibu Maxx, and used the crap out of that wacky looking waggonette. It may not have been fast, sexy or cool. But damn, it was so versatile. From towing a boat to hauling a new bathtub, I called it my little truck.
My best friend had a Maxx. That thing was shockingly roomy!
Oh yeah, I could fit an 8ft ladder in it with the hatch closed!
Nearly the same reason I use a Matrix for work, 6 foot ladder inside and when needed an original Little Giant on top. Covers all of the ladder usage I’ll need when running service. As an aside, a Little Giant on the roof comes at the cost of about 3.5 miles per gallon. 39 to 35.5.
Nice!
Honda Fit enters the chat.
All hatchbacks are welcome here!
I just realized from the photos with the hatch open and the stuff and couch loaded in, the Aztek’s rear opening is essentially the same as the Cybertruck’s — Open as a bed when you need it, covered when you don’t, with angled sides. Silly but amusing coincidence.
Don’t love it, don’t hate it, I respect it. Not my taste, but they are amazing vehicles because they are unique. And, we like unique around here a lot.
David, this is a well-written and interesting article–much more so than the “what should I do with my xxxx” types you sometimes write. More like this please.
I mean I think it’s a bit revisionist to think that the Aztek wasn’t hated upon arrival (that applies a lot more to the Rendezvous, which upon introduction was hailed as “how the Aztek should have been in the first place” even though in person it’s at least as ugly and awkwardly shaped and the quality improvements are skin deep) with Breaking Bad and general Internet ironic detachment having given it a second lease on life, but I don’t recall them actually reviewing too terribly. Instead it was a matter of how GM from 1995-ish through probably when they hired Bob Lutz was a uniquely terrible manufacturer to try to do something that legitimately does seem fairly ahead of the curve.
Unsuitable drivetrains, ugly interiors with bad materials that also were assembled poorly and any inherent engineering goodness that was cobbled together by overstretched development budgets then further destroyed by bean counters before they actually got them to dealers where they were then frequently overpriced.
Yeah, everyone hated this thing the first time they saw it. I still do but I’m glad you like it, David.
So my career is industrial design, which is the design of mass produced products; transportation designers design cars, I design power tools, medical equipment, powersports stuff, lab equipment, consumer electronics, etc etc etc. While ID and transportation designers share a lot of the same skillsets and design processes, we differ in where we place importance, as automotive design is much more flash/emotional sketching vs …. functional, useful, designed around the user’s needs. I really value functionality first, and while still important, aesthetics second.
I have defended the Aztek since it came out. I remember meeting some of the people who designed it (forget the names right now), and it was designed AROUND what people actually use their trucks for. As in, it could fulfill the role of ‘truck’ most of the time. All those giant trucks and SUVs you see on the road? Most could be replaced with an aztek.
So, functionally, I think it’s always been a competent vehicle, with awesome accessories. I think the main problem that I have with it, and that most people have but don’t realize, is the fitment. The bean counters at GM were awful in this time period, and great at reducing sexy automotive renderings to awkward looking vehicles by reducing the diameter of the wheel, increasing sidewall height, tons of wheel gap, and then for aero I am guessing, pushed the wheels inwards so they don’t disrupt airflow.
The result was a vehicle that didn’t really know what aesthetic it wanted to be in. I feel like if the Aztek had come, from the factory, with larger wheels/tires, it might not have ever been so looked down upon.
Example:
https://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/news/pontiac-aztek-rendered-as-overland-monster-with-beefy-tires-142267-7.jpg
https://www.carscoops.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Pontiac-Aztec-7.jpg
The Aztek is basically a minivan without the sliding doors that mark it as a minivan. And as such, just like a minivan, it’s indeed just as capable of replacing a pickup for a large portion of the population.
It’s a minivan that fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
“The Aztek is basically a minivan without the sliding doors that mark it as a minivan. And as such, just like a minivan, it’s indeed just as capable of replacing a pickup for a large portion of the population.”
It’s funny, a buddy of mine is a full-time oddjob handyman – doing light contractor-ish stuff like fixing holes and chips in interior walls, light plumbing work, and also landscaping.
For years he used a 90s era Silverado and it was fine, but for the past couple years he switched over to using his mom’s long since retired and no longer used Honda Odyssey…and he loves using it for transporting stuff.
Way more than the truck.
With only the front seats left and everything else removed, there’s a massive amount of interior space, and you don’t have to worry about rain or snow, and you don’t have to worry about strapping down stuff in the bed.
Just toss it in and close the door.
I used it earlier this year to pick up a massive Craigslist jointer and…yeah, I’ll admit it was pretty luxurious to just toss it in there.
I honestly don’t know why more people so this instead of their trucks – I guess some people would feel embarrassed being seen with the minivan, but I personally think it’s way more useful.
Just don’t try to haul 600 some pounds of concrete and cinder blocks on 18 year old shocks (’04 Odyssey). I even found a route to avoid all speed bumps and humps but to no avail. Probably was due for a suspension refresh anyway.
Maybe wear or distribution, but minivans tend to have payloads on the order of 1400lbs. Basically on the lower end of the half-ton range. 600lbs should be just fine.
You are correct, I didn’t take any time to review what I bought that day. Looking at my notes it seems that I bought 12 x 80 pound bags of concretes plus 6 20 pound cinder blocks. Weight limit is 1,158 lbs and it was on 18 yo suspension so probably not a good idea to push it like that. I think I ended up using half of what I bought and returned the rest.
I do know that at it’s next service my mechanic said that both rear shocks were weeping.
Now imagine a minivan + ground clearance, AWD, locking rear diff, and chevy half ton parts, and you have an Astro 😛
Yep. I’m from Baltimore and actually know some people who’s parents built that very van at the plant in Dundalk! Before it was shut down at least.
Did the Astro have a locking rear diff? I didn’t think that they ever came from the factory with one, but perhaps I’m wrong.
Yup, check the RPO codes on a small sticker inside the passenger door frame, should be a bunch of 3 digit codes. If it says G80 it has a locking rear diff.
With pickup prices the way they are, I’ve thought of getting an old Odyssey or Sienna for “DIY project hauler” duty. They are usually pretty cheap when the miles add up and the back is full of stains and spills. But if you are using it to haul lumber and bags of mulch, who cares?
Only advantage of the pickup is tall stuff I might want to haul, and potentially 4WD for bad weather in a pinch. Not sure I’d ever tow anything. The only time I’ve considered towing is to get a small trailer to haul stuff since I don’t have a pickup truck.
The main objection I have to calling it a minivan with fewer seats and no sliding door is that it has an advantage in length.
I really liked my minivan when I had one and I had kids to drive around. Its shortcoming was that it was long if you had to get a streetside parking space.
This is a several inches shorter in both wheelbase and OAL than a short wheelbase Caravan of the same era, and over a foot shorter than the long wheelbase, which probably was the more typical one. Which sounds about perfect. It’s the same length as a later Mazda MPV, which I’ve never owned but there was one on my block for a while and it looked like a great vehicle to have.
It’s a few inches longer than a Honda Element, which also makes it a likely good vehicle form for me. And it has the same horizontal split gate at the rear, which worked so well for David’s sofa.
4×8 sheets of building material lay flat in the back of an ’04 Odyssey. My pickup truck, 7 seat do most anything utility vehicle.
Look into Astro Safaris, they are amazing vehicles, with exceptionally terrible MPG.
Except minivans don’t have to have sliding doors to be a minivan(see first generation Odysseys and MPVs).
It’s just a minivan, objectively and literally.
I came to the realization the I had bought a minivan when I got out of my dd Element and into my Miata. After some therapy, I think I’m ok with it. As for the Aztek, I enjoyed the A/C vents looking like C-cup versions of my NA Miata.
> At first, everyone loves these machines
No we don’t
Everybody hated the Aztek when it came out. Same with the Multipla.
You’re correct about the PT Cruiser, though. People went gaga over it and then for some inexplicable reason it became a pariah. It was cool then and it’s still cool today, except for the fact it’s a Chrysler.
I have loved the FIAT Multipla ever since I’ve found out about them, which was twenty years ago at this point. My affection for the PT Cruiser and the Aztek however have never increased beyond disdain. I’ve always seen the Aztek and it’s sibling the Buick Rendevous as the very visible signs of rot within General Motors that lead to them begging for a bailout. The Malibu Maxx and the Saturn Ion Coupe were what GM should’ve been doing because it’s what they were good at (innovative packaging solutions in cost-amortized platforms) but instead they focused on caveman engineering the biggest things they could sell, like the Hummer H2 and the GMC Envoy XL. The Aztek’s so frustrating to me because it does do the innovative packaging thing, but it also tries to go fully into the rocks and sticks giant bullshit of things like the Tahoe and it got chopped up by the bean counters. The Buick Rendezvous meanwhile invites fury because it keeps all the horrible proportions and has no packaging tricks.
My FIL bought a Rendezvous after I told him not to get it. Similar to the Aztek, it had a ton of room inside and worked pretty well for his furniture business. It was a a maintenance nightmare though, and they sold it for a Buick car (I forget the model) and then the RAV4 that they should have purchased all along. The only thing I really remember about it was the sad little tailpipe hanging four inches below the bumper cover like the afterthought that it was. No love went into designing that vehicle.
It is funny how much venom the Rendezvous is getting in these comments. I happen to agree. I remember seeing them and thinking it just seemed like the most low effort pile of badge engineered crap that GM could put together.
At least the Aztek did score some points in the utility category. I remember reviews of the car when it was produced that did note it had useful features, but was otherwise hideous looking and nothing special to drive. Seems like David is having the same takeaway, even if the Aztek’s looks have aged fairly well thanks to some of the awful designs we see today.
I remember when the Rendevous was new the thing they tried to sell you on was that it couldn’t possibly be an old person car because it had a volume controls and headphone jacks for the back seats. The hilarity of them marketing that like it was a first of it’s kind thing when the ZJ Grand Cherokee, second generation Ford Explorer, Mercury Villager, and Acura SLX all featured that and had all ceased production before the Rendevous had even come out amuses me even twenty two years later.
The 3.4 combo with slushbox isn’t an great powertrain, but it is a fairly indestructible and adequate one. Wife had a 2008 Pontiac Torrent that I just sold for $5k and it was…. adequate. Not the best mileage, but dead reliable.
Yep, the whole HV engine family are unfairly maligned. Sure, the intake gaskets were a issue, but if caught in time these were very reliable, reasonably efficient engines, usually still going great as the body it’s bolted in rusts away around it.
If it had lasted a few more years, maybe they would’ve made an Aztek GXP with the LS4 😀
Aztek GXP, Rendevous Super, Montana GXP, Terraza Super, Uplander SS, Relay Red Line, fuck yeah
Rare 1999 Oldsmobile Silhouette OSV Concept Is For Sale | GM Authority
So vans don’t have soul? Not even diesel vans with manual transmissions?
Truth is that if the Aztek would have been put out by Honda (i.e. a larger Element) it would have been loved. The Element is a very similar vehicle and isn’t much better looking or even better executed. The Aztek had a much better set of OEM accessories and had better utility due to its 4 full sized doors and larger form factor.
Part of the revulsion of the Aztek was that it came from Pontiac / GM and had the horrible ribbed side cladding on the initial versions and the Tupperware interior quality (sorry Tupperware).
But in reality the Aztek was a bigger more outdoor focused Element with a bunch of cool features that the Element never had like the tent, stereo access in the back and the cooler. and some it did, like the table in the back.
I thought the Element was butt ugly but I have been turned around on them after friends over the years used them with me and showed me their versatility. The Aztek is the same way, not the best looking but a virtual swiss army knife of a car. Just like DT says in the review, its a minivan with 5 seats, but it uses its other virtues to sell the lack of seats.
The Element had in its favor:
* you can hose down the interior
* it’s not a GM
* I like to peench
So yes, the hose out feature was something the Aztek didn’t have over the Element. It’s an even worse omission when you think have good GM was at spreading huge expanses of cheap plastic to all corners of their interiors, you would imagine that they would have thought of laying some glad bag material out for upholstery instead of what they came up with. But alas, GM had a serious addiction to mouse fur back then and although from David’s pics and my memory from the autoshow back than ( I never drove one). They didn’t use their standard fare for the Aztek.
As fas it “not being a GM” I do agree that it a huge factor. But there is an interesting fact that is rarely mentioned. GM vehicles, especially of that era, while being pieces of absolute crap in overall execution and on details, but in many areas, like overall reliability they were pretty good. Ya they looked like crap, the paint failed, the power window regulators broke, the interior trim pieces broke on the showroom floor, but they drove and drove.
My dad had a late production Corsica that made it to 350,000 miles. Now by the end, not one of the power windows worked, the thing rattled and squeaked and every single electrical accessory from the A/C to the rear window defroster was dead. But it still drove pretty good. My daughter drove a GMT-800 Tahoe that made it to within 5,000 miles of 500,000 before it threw a rod. Ya nothing worked on it, all the door handles were trash and it had rust issues, but it was quiet and still looked pretty good when she cleaned it up. One last one, my friend Kim had one of the last years of the Grand Am. Ya it was and ugly POS, but it was running smooth and quiet before she got T-Boned on her way to work. It had 300,000 miles on it.
Did GM put out garbage?
YES
Would I want to drive any of that garbage?
NO
Was the Element a better engineered car?
Probably yes
But my point really is they are very similar. and, that if Honda would have made the exact same car, ugliness, GM engineering and all, it would have been a smash hit..
Maybe we can see if it happens again because a similar situation is about to happen. Honda will be selling rebadged GM Ultium EV’s any minute. The same buggy Ultium SUV’s like the Lyric and Blazer EV will be under the new Honda, their first EV. Obviously, Honda will eventually come up with their own platforms so there is a possibility that this plays out again. Maybe.
Honda did it another time with GM/Isuzu back in the 90’s. The SUV craze was just starting to heat up in the US and without time to come up with an SUV of their own quick enough, they sold a rebadged Rodeo as the Passport. It was a decent truck, but it was most definitely NOT up to Honda’s standers of quality, NVH, engineering and many other ways that did count.
You can wipe down the interior with a damp cloth, please don’t hose it, no drains I’ve found in mine.
“if the Aztek would have been put out by Honda (ie a larger Element)”
You mean if Honda made a smallish minivan without sliding doors? You mean like a Pilot?
Ooooo snarky. You mean the original Odyssey RA
I can be snarky too
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/HondaOdyssey-001.jpg
I remember reading somewhere that the Aztek had one of the highest owner satisfaction rates of its day. While the first-owner pool was limited to those who were willing to endure its appearance (and after two decades of Dali-clock Mercedes-Benz sedans, plankton-straining Lexii and the Bavarian horrors of the iX and xM, didn’t look that bad at all) for whatever else it had to offer, this certainly showed that GM did a decent, if plastic-encrusted, job of anticipating what buyers wanted and needed and prefigured the coming crossover boom.
And that sofa looks pretty decent. I assume that your furniture of Troy mostly didn’t make the trip – I can’t imagine they’d be allowed past the agricultural pest inspection stations at the borders – so I’m guessing you had to get out really early on bulk pickup day to find that.
You can really score on bulk pickup days! I got my workshop stool and the table that held my 3D printer for years on one of those days.
Its also shocking how often folks will put out a perfectly good appliance. Works fine, just doesn’t fit the remodel aesthetic…
I never had any issues with the Aztek. Now, the Buick Rendevous is a whole other conversation. Every time I see a Rendevous anger wells up inside to this day.
Several years ago, my nephew was looking for a cheap replacement for his drivetrain challenged Explorer. His biggest problem was that he couldn’t find anything in his price range that wasn’t in worse condition. I suggested he search the ads for an Aztek. He was resistant, but willing to keep an open mind. He found one listed about two hours away selling for slightly more than half of what he had to spend. It had relatively low miles for a 2005 and was an AWD model. We went to check it out together. The inside looked like new and the outside was rust free with only one small crease in a fender. It was bit too red. On the test ride, it started right up, shifted clean ran smoothly, and stopped without drama. I could see his face change from scowl to smile the longer he drove it. When we got back, he struck a deal that left everyone happy. The owner said he’d had the Aztek for sale for over a month and hadn’t gotten a single offer, so he was very pleased to sell. My nephew is still driving that Aztek and never fails to relate a tale of the latest use he’s put to it. Two years ago he got into mild overlanding and scrounged up an Aztek tent from somewhere. Claims he’s going to drive it forever.
So are you moving out of your apartment and into…the Aztek?
I’m waiting on tenterhooks for the week in the Aztek! I’m expecting daily updates!
Yeah! Also, I keep saying that he needs to incorporate shower spaghetti somehow
Santa Monica doesn’t allow people to live in their Aztek.
That’s a North Hollywood/Skid Row/405 after 4pm thing.
Just rent a climate-controlled storage unit for a month, and you can park it inside every evening.
Or take it camping next to a river or lake. A nice campground with showers would be terrific. No one requires you to be in the direct sun in a parking lot or driveway somewhere.
You really need to drive it over to the Swing Inn for some barbecue.
Does it make the same sounds as the Aztek did in Breaking Bad?
Also what’s up with that garage within what appears to be an underground parking garage? Looks pretty cool.
Don’t all GM products make breaking bad sounds?
Time and the beige color have been kind to that car. Redemption is sweet.
Well, beige helps, but it’s mostly the redesign that color matched the plastic cladding to the rest of the body. Early Azteks only looked decent in black, and even then, the contrast of the shiny paint and flat plastic still made them pretty damned ugly. I even shopped for an Aztek after they matched the cladding to the paint.
That last photo shows that the styling has come full circle. Yes it’s ugly, but it also blends right in with 2024 BMW crossovers and Nissan Jukes and beyond. GM did it again, they had an idea way ahead of the competition and fumbled it.
It looks like a larger Prius to me.
Y’all are spoiling us with an Uncle Adrian review and David waxing poetic about the Aztec on a Friday evening
I know a lot of our community has previously pointed out the ahead-of-it’s-time vibe, but I never really noticed until now that the oddball squinty-alien headlight thing is another example of that. Derided back then, it would now fit right in with a fair amount of contemporary GM stuff.
What’s the visibility like out the back? It seems pretty reasonable, both for its time but especially now.
Fit in, sure, but it will never not look like two grilles stacked up.
It’s like that Onion article prophesying a five-bladed razor, as the trend was to add more and more blades to razors because more is better. Someone took it to heart, though, and then made the damn thing. GM seems to be obsessed with doing the same thing with grilles. If a vehicle with two grilles is good, four grilles must be twice as good!
https://www.theonion.com/fuck-everything-were-doing-five-blades-1819584036
Related-ish: goddamn those Old Site network of pages are trash. I’m sad The Onion is part of it.
Autopian should hire Stan Kelly away from that place!
It’s not anymore! They just likely haven’t gotten around to updating the site design yet.
Can I say I’ve always enjoyed how the first and last gen Ford Fusion does in fact have a 5-bladed grill?
Oh man, that’s beautiful. Too bad the Mach-E doesn’t have that.
Paging a Mr. The Bishop…