> 3. Hello? Yes, Can I speak to the President of Pontiac Motors? Could you tell him I think I've found a sure fire way to sell the Pontiac Aztek"? Yes I'll hold.

Ah, the Aztek. If it weren't for the Honda Element and the Scion, probably the most BUTT UGLY car in recent memory. It even rivals some of those dumbass Caddys with the scuba-diver rear end (you know, they look like the back end of one of those boats on the old Sea Hunt).

Now, mind you, Toyota did do an impressive job with one of their vans limiting themselves to color -- a Campbell's Split-Pea Soup Green exterior combined with a wierd dark-grey-light-grey material with little baby-blue "propeller" checks on it (you know, kinda like a lightning bolt, but not squared off at the top, but pointed).

But that Aztek -- especially the version they had with the bright yellow paintjob and the black plastic ground-effects, so that it looked like nothing but a Monstrous, Giant Bee... ?

The interior description from the Pope, though, makes it sound like that car that Homer Simpson designed for his half-brothers' auto company!! Apparently, they were channelling Matt Groening and did not realize it...

My first reaction when I first saw the aztek was "that looks like the homermobile". good to see im not the only one who thought of that.

Strangely enough, I like the honda "elephant" and the scion being cheap and sold almost exclusively to the 18-22 demographic works for me too. the scion is what it is , basic transportation for the none too exclusive marketplace. it makes no pretense of being something that it is not. its ugly, but in a geeky sort of way, it gets the job done.

The aztek to me is everything that is wrong with the american car business. As the pope points out in their review; "Where were the adults in this development"?. This car didnt just happen, it as planned, reviewed and accepted without anyone in the organization asking obvious questions like "seats five, sleeps two?" or "just how many people really want to drive in their car all day and sleep in it all night?". the more you look at the car, the more obvious is defects. it makes you wonder what sort of design peer review goes on in the land of pontiac.

and no matter what the answer is to that question someone has to fess up to why it had to be so damn ugly. "The pope" goes on to point out that if you were inclined to buy a car you could also camp in, you would be better off buying the Pontiac minivan because it did everything the aztek did, only you had more room , it looks better has the same traction system and ground clearance as does the aztec. a little more marketing on the minivan and it might have done better.

theres an aircraft from WWII that the aztec remins me of; the "Fisher Eagle", which was made by cobbling together parts of various aircraft designs. it too was a grotesque failure.

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/annex/an33.htm