Pontiac Aztek

The Pontiac Aztek was a mid-size crossover produced by the General Motors marque Pontiac from the 2001 model year to the 2005 model year — the first crossover offered by General Motors.

The Aztek was heavily criticized on its exterior styling, with Time magazine in 2007 calling the Aztek one of the worst cars of all time, and a poll in The Daily Telegraph in August 2008 placing the Aztek at number one of “The 100 ugliest cars” of all time.

GM forecast sales of up to 75,000 Azteks per year, and needed to produce 30,000 annually to break even. Just 27,322 were sold in 2001 with more than 50% being sold to captive rental company fleets or used by General Motors executives.

Pricing of the Aztek was also an issue at launch. In addition to being widely criticized for styling, the vehicle was simply too expensive for its intended “Generation X” audience and was priced significantly higher than competing vehicles. After the 2001 model year, the GT model was dropped and pricing was slashed, in addition to extremely generous rebates and cut-rate financing instituted by GM in the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.