I am not a conspiracy theorist. I believe we sent a man to the Moon, that birds are real, and the Earth is round. I don’t see water vapor collecting behind a plane in the sky and assume it’s the government trying to drop chemicals on me that will turn me into an Elton John fan, though I am coincidentally an Elton John fan.
So you can trust me when I say something suspicious is happening with Hagerty and the company’s refusal to recognize the Pontiac Aztek as a true collector car of increasingly high value. What are the editors of Hagerty trying to hide? Why isn’t the Pontiac Aztek ever included in the publication’s annual Bull Market list of up-and-coming collectibles?
To find out the real story I crashed Hagerty’s Bull Market testing at Lime Rock Park earlier this year. Or, perhaps more accurately, they invited me and offered me lunch. Which IÂ begrudgingly ate. This was not long after Monterey Car Week so I’d just put hundreds of miles on the Aztek and came to realize what a true gem it truly is.
Would Hagerty agree? The company’s online valuation tool is usually a useful way to determine a car’s value and I went to the site to see what price the experts would put on GM’s groundbreaking crossover. Disturbingly, Hagerty does not offer an estimate for the Aztek.
Conspicuous! There’s definitely some bull occurring here.
Armed with this knowledge I tried to subtly coax an explanation of why the Aztek wasn’t on the Bull Market list by asking Hagerty’s valuation guy Adam Wilcox “Why isn’t the Pontiac Aztek on the Bull Market list?”
What he said next shocked me. It turns out Adam did pull the data on the Pontiac Aztek and it was on the long list of potential cars for inclusion. This means that Hagerty does, indeed, have some data on the car. What’s even more sinister is that this confirmed someone or some group was keeping the Aztek down.
What’s going on here? Only one man could answer. Hagerty’s media head Larry Webster. A person I’ve known and worked with for most of my career. Could someone I thought I knew so well be involved? Could a man who owns a Lotus Evora and seemingly hundreds of fleece pullovers be capable of such evil?
I found him in the Lime Rock’s main paddock and immediately confronted him.
“Why is Hagerty keeping the value of the Pontiac Aztek down?” I asked.
“Man, you’re leading the witness!” he rebutted, immediately and incriminatingly defensive. “What do you mean ‘Trying to keep the values low’? Let’s just unpack that. That’s a strong accusation.”
Clearly, I’d struck a nerve. Perhaps the reason was obvious. Perhaps Hagerty’s editors, aware of the power they have to move the market, were doing so in a way that could enrich themselves.
“Think about it! You have the data. You know what the next cars are going to be, you can just buy all the Azteks when they’re at the bottom of the market. And then drive the market up. Are you suppressing Aztek values?”
Larry was nearly trembling at this point, but his years of media training kicked in and he calmed himself.
“Absolutely not. We are all about encouraging classic car ownership,” he explained, sharing the company line. ” This is why we spend tens of thousands of dollars, Matt, to be here and present this. And then, not only that, we take this material and give it away to any other media who might cover it in the hope that people might realize this is a great hobby, so get in while you can.”
The answer was almost a little too good, like he knew the question was coming. I wasn’t going to let him off easy.
“Then why didn’t the Aztek get picked this year, if the data supported it?”
“It might get on next year! Maybe the data just wasn’t strong enough. Maybe the data for these other cars was a little stronger?”
Now I was getting somewhere.
“Would you ever actually consider an Aztek?”
“To own?”
“To put on the Bull Market list.”
After a long pause, he knew I’d cornered him.
“No comment.”
As a longtime journalist, Larry knew that wouldn’t stand. I just stared at him until he finally broke.
“I mean, you never say never, because we’re trying to keep this fun,” he admitted. “I so appreciate what you guys are doing because you’re showing what the best part about this world. There are so many of these cars that you know, the 20-, 30-years old that are not that expensive, and there’s some fun experience to be had. The Aztec included.”
So the Aztek will be on the list next year?
“I think that that could be, maybe, somewhere in the future, but, you know, I’m not going to promise anything.”
I appreciate Larry standing up to the hard questioning, though it isn’t entirely in his control. Every year there’s an HDC Members’ Choice car. This year it was the DeLorean DMC-12. If you’re an HDC Member I think you know what needs to be done.
I think values of these things are flat because everyone who wants one already has one. No conspiracy theory needed.
The attraction to this typically GM turd escapes me completely. Only the fact that modern cars are even WORSE now makes it seem even remotely attractive. Prettiest gal at the leper colony.
Does anyone who is not a loser or a fool care at all about this car ?
No.
I think weirdos like them too.
This is an opportunity, folks. We have to get in now before the values inevitably skyrocket. There’s a whole generation about to discover Breaking Bad for the first time!
Larry Webster’s name sounded familiar in an automotive context. A little search revealed he has been at just about every car publication I read growing up. Poor guy can’t keep a job.
Or he has managed to move to better jobs.
I’ve read some of his stuff at Hagerty. He seems like he’s doing okay.
Poking around Hagerty more, I was pleased to see that Sam Smith and Jamie Kitman, two of my favorites over the years, also contribute.
It’s pretty remarkable how many great writers gravitated to covering the auto industry. Too many to name, really. If I tried, I would certainly forget somebody. And, everyone probably has their own favorites and others they couldn’t stand. I don’t think in this context polarization is evil.
When I first started working in journalism, there were a lot of J School graduates who looked down on sports writers in general. I wasn’t a sports writer or a J School graduate. And I had already read the work of some great ones.
One of them from hometown, Bob Dunning, has a great substack. And so does his editorial cartoonist/columnist buddy Jack Ohman. Both are worth checking out.
You need to bribe him with a wheelbarrow full of shrimp or some shower spaghetti if you want him to spill the beans.
Why would you WANT to be on that list? That just means schmucks end up bidding them into the stratosphere if you want another one, or things get pricey as hell if you need parts.
What we need to do is to convince everyone that 911s are for dorks. I am a dork. Go discover Infinitis or something, I don’t know. You do not want aircooled 911s anymore.
Arguably it’s funnier they’re probably aware they don’t need to because you can sell anything with a frame on cars and bids
Well, nobody was an Elton John fan until after contrails began appearing in the sky.
Asking the tough questions. Big journalism on display here. Love to see it.
Someone must be hoarding these. There’s not even one on the lot at my local Pontiac dealer.
They all went to the crusher and the scrap is being shipped to China.
But how do we know that Galpin hasn’t amassed a huge cache of Azteks and used its captive auto hobbyist site to drive up Aztek values, even to the extent of pitching them as housing in the insane SoCal market???
I can give you one better. When I did my ‘Adrian Alters’ piece on the Nissan 400Z someone accused me of writing it on the orders of Galpin to help pump sales.
Galpin doesn’t even have a Nissan dealer.
Finally we know the real reason why Hagerty is going around buying up all the car shows and cornering the classic car insurance market, and it has everything to do with the Aztec.
Big Hagerty trying to keep the Aztec value all for themselves!