Pontiac Aztek

Pontiac Aztek

Pontiac Aztek was a midsize crossover vehicle manufactured by General Motors and marketed by Pontiac. Its production lasted for four years, from 2001 to 2005. Pontiac Aztek is a four door crossover vehicle, which has a front engine, that’s included with a four speed automatic transmission as well as 3.4 liter V6 engine. Pontiac Aztek was produced both with a front wheel drive and a four wheel drive. The company Pontiac marketed Pontiac Aztek as a “sport recreational vehicle”.

Pontiac

Pontiac was an American automobile brand established in 1926 and it served as a companion make for General Motors “Oakland”. However, shortly after its establishment in 1926 it overgrew the success of its parent brand “Oakland” and it supplanted it, after doing so it became a companion make for Chevrolet. Pontiac was sold in the United States of America, Canada and Mexico. In 2010 the brand was shut down by General Motors, because of the financial problems that General Motor was facing. The last Pontiac model ever made was the 2010 model G6.

Success

The concept of Pontiac Aztek was first introduced in 1999 at Detroit auto show. The idea of this vehicle is very simple a mix between the SUV and a minivan, a vehicle that is capable of carrying all the stuff your family needs, the style made sure the Pontiac Aztek looked nothing like a regular minivan. Pontiac Aztek is often considered to be one of the worst vehicles ever. Time magazine in 2007 named it as one of the 50 words cars of all time, UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph, after conducting a poll, placed the Aztek number one in the “100 ugliest cars” of all time. When it was first manufactured by the American automotive giants General Motors, they expected up to 75 thousand sales per year and in order to break even they needed 30,000 sales per year. Unfortunately, even at the first year of sales in 2001, only just a bit over 27,000 units of Pontiac Aztek were sold. The later year marked even a bigger downfall: in 2002 and 2003 the number remained almost the same, so General Motors recorded minor losses, however in 2004 the number of sales dropped to 20,000 units and in 2005 it was only 5,020 units sold in the USA. The production of Pontiac Aztek ended in 2005. However, in recent years the vehicle received a little bit of recognition when it starred in a popular TV series Breaking Bad. One of the Pontiac Aztek that was used in filming was sold for 7,800$ in 2013, even though the vehicle was completely wrecked and undrivable.

Size

Pontiac Aztek is well known for its big size. It has 2,751 millimeters wheelbase (108.3 inches), its length is 4,625 millimeters (192.1 inches), with width of 1,872 millimeters (73.7 inches) and height of 1,694 millimeters (66.7 inches). The vehicle can be considered to be a minivan; it has a lot of space inside. If you remove the back seats inside the vehicle you can easily fit bicycles inside and they can actually be put standing, most cross over vehicles do not offer such a luxury when it comes to room inside the back. The size also gives this vehicle as if you’re driving a normal vehicle which makes parking and driving much easier, however, regardless of that, when you’re driving the car it still feels like you’re driving a mini minivan.

Engine

The engine as mentioned before is a 3.4 liter V6. Even though the engine is relatively powerful, the vehicle doesn’t offer a lot of acceleration, for example can reach 60 miles per hour (96 kilometers per hour) in 10.8 seconds and 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour) in 51.8 seconds. This engine is widely used in all of General Motors produced minivans, and it tends to make loud noises when being used, however Pontiac managed to isolate the sound coming from the engine to its minimum so it doesn’t disturb the driver or the people inside the vehicle, when Pontiac Aztek is being driven. When idle the vehicle only makes 40 decibel A-weighting (noise measurement), when it reaches 70 miles per hour, it makes around 70 dBA.

Technology in the Pontiac Aztek

Pontiac Aztek was equipped with a relatively new technology at that time. It was one of the first vehicles designed used computerized rapid-prototyping/rapid-visualization tools. It also had an option of 10 Pioneer speakers put inside the vehicle. Pontiac Aztek was also modified a number of times. The 2001 model became available in both front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive. In 2002 the turn signals were changed from amber to clear, with additional spoiler added to rear glass gate. In 2003 Aztek “Rally Edition” was introduced; it was an optional package, which had a lower front suspension, more spacious back, 17 inch chrome wheel and a larger spoiler on the back. In addition to that, more optional picks were added: DVD entertainment system as well as XM satellite radio. The 2004 model had leather edition model available. In its final, 2005 year, Aztek gained hands-free operation on its On-Star system.

Safety

“Insurance Institute for Highway Safety” (IIHS) after conducting tests with the vehicle gave it a “Marginal” overall score in frontal impact. IIHS categorize all vehicles, and their tests are valued as “Good”, “Acceptable”, “Marginal” and “Poor”. So the vehicle does not offer a lot of safety during the frontal impact, however “Insurance Institute for Highway Safety” did not test the vehicle for its side impact. In 2004 another crashing test was done, this time “National Highway Traffic Safety Administration” conducted the test. This test checks what kind of impact a vehicle crash has on its occupants. The frontal drivers safety received three stars out of five, frontal passengers safety four stars out of five, the safest place of the vehicle was tested to be the side driver seat, it received the maximum of five stars out of five, and side rear passenger, like the frontal driver received three stars out of five. So the side rear passenger and the frontal driver are exposed to serious injuries, when in the vehicle.