We’re in central California for “Monterey Car Week” in our Pontiac Aztek and the vibes are good, my friends. It feels like the entire car world is here going to shows, auctions, or races, and a surprisingly huge number of them are super pumped about our humble, beige-on-beige Pontiac. A guy in a Honda Fit nearly drove off the road in front of The Lodge at Pebble Beach trying to get our attention, yelling out “AUTOPIAN?!?!?” out of his window. It’s amazing.
The photo above is of our car next to a $2.1 million McLaren Speedetail, which is exactly the kind of car you’ll see a lot of at Monterey Car Week. I was taking this photo because it’s kind of our mission to get the much-maligned Aztek as close to as many new supercars and vintage Packards as possible. This was meant to be a playful photobomb, as this place is also crawling with young people excited to grab photos of cars they usually only see in Forza Horizon.
But is it a photobomb if people really want the photo of the Aztek?
I swear on Bob Lutz that moments after taking this photo a kid with a DSLR snapped his own shot of the Speedtail and then proceeded to turn around and take a photo of the Aztek. His friend, slightly puzzled, looked at him and the kid said “What? You gotta take a pic of an Aztek.” The friend nodded at his sage observation.
Car culture is fantastic and all of this is giving me life.
Why We Even Have This Car
I need to start by thanking the members of The Autopian who helped us buy this car. As a promotion for our 2nd anniversary, we said that if 200 people signed up for membership in April we’d buy an Aztek and daily drive/live in it for a week. You did it, so we did it. It may be the “ugliest car in the world,” but it’s charmingly weird in a way you can’t help but enjoy if you love cars (or being weird). It’s also legitimately good, as David said in his Unironic Review.
The car we got off Cars and Bids actually looked great when it showed up, and David’s review is on point: This thingrules; I’ve been driving it this week and, as David pointed out, it may not be perfect but it’s a early aughts GM product and thus has amazing seats, a cushy ride, lazy handling and ice-cold AC. It’s a minivan with no sliding doors, basically.
It’s also enormously practical and eats miles without complaint.
The Car Was A Hit At “Fuel Run”
We drove to the lovely Porsche Santa Clarita (owned by our sister company Galpin Motors) for the start of the “Fuel Run” on Wednesday. This is a rally for exotics that starts in LA and ends up in Monterey later that day. There were hundreds of cars out for the event, including a Lamborghini Countach, a million 911s, a few Lotuses, some nice BMWs… cars that are the opposite of the Pontiac Aztek.
The bit, as you can see in the video above, was that the Pontiac Aztek is the least likely car to run in this event. A little part of me was worried that people wouldn’t get the joke or that htey’d look down at the Aztek, but it didn’t happen.
Not only did everyone get the joke, but people seemed to genuinely appreciate the car. I think exotic car owners sometimes get a bad rap because of the small percentage of drivers who see it as status and don’t care about their vehicles. That’s not the case here. Everyone seemed to be on the Fuel Run because they love the camaraderie that comes with a shared passion.
In fact, the couple honking at us from the Boxster GTS 4.0 behind us in the video weren’t upset. We explained what we were doing (because we’re not jerks) and they thought it was hilarious and were more than happy to honk to make the video better.
It was a perfect start to the week.
Inside The Paddock At Laguna Seca
Our plan for yesterday morning was to quickly get over to Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca to see the Porsche 901 being raced by Steve McCord in the early session. The gag was going to be that we’d sneak in behind Steve as the cars lined up to get on the grid for the race.
We had absolutely no pass that would allow us into the paddock, of course. Our parking passes were on the hill. I’m not sure if it was the addition of the Fuel Run stickers, the anonymity of a beige-on-beige car, or the general goodwill of people… but we got in. The only time we were stopped by an official was when they wanted to talk about the Aztek!
The biggest problem we had was when I attempted to get into the grid… no one stopped me. Our camera team was out there waiting for us and I definitely chickened out. I love Laguna and the Historics and I respect it too much to even sneak onto pitlane for pre-grid. I just sat there waiting, dumbstruck for a second, and then I had to ditch to let a vintage Porsche behind me get onto the track.
Eventually, we were able to post up right next to the grid and everyone seemed happy to see the Aztek in spite of all the historic race cars around us.
The Aztek Is The Ultimate Life Hack
Everywhere we go people stop and stare. They laugh. They give us a thumbs up. I’m not sure how many of these people here know we’re with The Autopian and I’m not sure it matters (though we’ve been stopped by multiple people including a fan wearing our shirt at Motorlux!). The Aztek doesn’t need an explanation.
The Central Coast during Monterey Car Week is the kind of place where you’ll see a Tucker stuck behind a Ferrari Purosangque and a Pininfarina Battista in a traffic jam. If you love these kinds of cars you’ll never see more of them in one place in the United States.
Is the Aztek a better car than any of these cars? No. Of course not. Everyone knows this. The Aztek is weird and ridiculous. It’s not particularly well built and it’s not at all luxurious (though, again, comfy as hell).
Ultimately, the point we’re trying to make is not that some cars are good and some cars are bad. We’re not lampooning the nice cars. The point is that we all appreciate different kinds of cars and it’s not the cars that are important, it’s the appreciation itself.
It’s wonderful that pretty much everyone seems to get this. The Aztek gets as many smiles and waves as just about any car here, both from bystanders and Lamborghini drivers. It’s awesome.
As divisive as the design originally was, its design DNA is absolutely visible in most SUVs and crossovers today.
Hell yeah, go Aztek go!
This has been my experience, too. The few shouty douchebags are the highly visible ones. Most supercar folks are actually pretty nice.
Haha I was the guy in the Honda Fit Sport that spotted you guys at the lodge. It was definitely up there with the most interesting cars in the entire week!
“though we’ve been stopped by multiple people including a fan wearing our shirt at Motorlux!”
It was great to stop and take a couple of pics with you guys along with catching up at Lemons.
Years ago I had a 1972 Cadillac hearse. Primer grey, you touched it and you got it all over your hands. The rollers were taken out, as were the curtains (I couldn’t see a damn thing with them in). It was pretty grody, but very entertaining.
My band had a gig at a yacht club in Cleveland, their big blow out, the parking lot by the harbor being the site of the party.
While driving to Cleveland was its own adventure, the best part was pulling into the club. There were beautiful yachts in the harbor, and BMW was a sponsor of the event, so there were all these new BMWs ringing the area on display.
And we drive up in the hearse, in the middle of the party; people literally part like the Red Sea as we drove in. An the reaction was fantastic! Everyone there LOVED it. They totally thought it was a hoot, and it was the star of the show. They took us on their yachts, gave us food and drink, it was the best gig ever.
So it makes sense that the Aztek was a hit at the show; this is all supposed to be fun, and just because there’s beaucoup bucks, doesn’t mean there’s no joy and no passion…
I’m trying to think what would possibly be a better good “bad” car to show up to the Concours in other than a mint Aztec… like all the other things that come to mind, a PT Cruiser or a Prowler are just stupid shit.
I’m 6’4″ with a bad back. Your car would be my personal pick in this scenario!
Your Aztec really needs an “I left my ❤️ in Tenochtitlan” sticker.
Thank you for that comment. It’s a perfect example of why Autopian members are fantastic. All those supercar drivers need to remember:
“Ponder this, eagle and jaguar knights,” wrote King Nezahualcoyotl:
Though you are carved in jade, you will break;
Though you are made of gold, you will crack;
Even though you are a quetzal feather, you will wither.
We are not forever on this earth;
Only for a time are we here.
Life is short, have fun and drive silly cars.
That graphic is a winner!
Enthusiasm is universal, and that thing brings out a nostalgia and enthusiasm that was a joy to read about. You guys are going to make a splash at events if you keep your arrivals on point like this.