Our Pontiac Aztek Has Been A Great Daily Driver Except For One Major Issue: Unintended Acceleration

The Pontiac Aztek is a bit of a pop culture icon. Its polarizing looks — combined with its stardom in Breaking Bad — has led to a bit of a “Zero to Hero” transformation, with the Aztek eschewing its “nerd” title for a very clear spot at the jock’s table. Here’s what it’s been like daily-driving the thing.

I’ve already written a full, unironic review of the Pontiac Aztek, and now that I’ve been daily-driving the thing, I can tell you: That review is pretty much spot on. The Aztek is a lovely machine to drive every day. It really is just a four-door minivan with two rows and a tailgate. The driver sits up high like in a minivan, the ride feels minivan-esque, there’s an absurd amount of space inside, and handling is… uh, cumbersome in the corners but magic carpet-smooth on the straights.

Add the fact that the seats are amazing, the sound system is way better than you’d expect, and the visibility makes new cars feel like bunkers, and the result is an absolutely wonderful daily driver whose main downsides, really, are its ho-hum fuel economy and perhaps its lack of Bluetooth capability.

It still feels about a century older than my BMW i3S, but it’s still great.

 

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The power from the 3.4-liter V6 is plenty. 185 horsepower is really not bad, and though it’s held back by a four-speed automatic, zero to 60 times of 9 to 10 seconds are more than enough. I’m delighted every time I get behind the wheel of our extremely well-bought Aztek, though there is one thing that really holds it back. Here, allow me to let Mercedes explain the problem:

 

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The car wants to accelerate up to about 65 mph on a (flat) highway. All on its own.

This has been a problem since we first took ownership of this hideously-charming SUV, but it seems to have gotten worse, particularly when the engine is warm. The revs climb to the sky, overheating the transmission, causing it to upshift and downshift really hard.

I’m not worried about the brakes, which get a bit hot while slowing the car down on long downhills (Matt says they were smoking on Mulholland Drive), since those are easily replaceable — I’m worried about frying this transmission, so I’m going to have to get to the bottom of this high-idle issue. Usually I’d suspect an issue with the Idle Air Controller sensor, but given that this is only an issue when the engine is hot, I wonder if it might be something else. Perhaps a vacuum leak? (I checked this already, but I’ll try again). Or perhaps a mass airflow sensor issue? Or perhaps a coolant temperature sensor issue?

If you have any suggestions, hit me in the comments. Because this lovely machine is pretty much perfect, except for that one rather significant issue, which I’d love to fix before I begin living in this in a week or so after my strained back heals up a bit.