GM Will 'Tweak' Aztek Design

Vehicle Was Brunt Of Several Jokes At Detroit Auto Show

DETROIT, 1:48 p.m. EST January 29, 2001 -- General Motors will send the Pontiac Aztek back to the drawing board.

Months onto the market, the boxy, blunt and angular vehicle with a glass-covered rear has been a sales struggle for General Motors Corp. and dealers. Critics have taken swipes over its out-there look, as have rival automakers.

During a skit debuting three DaimlerChrysler AG concept vehicles at this month's Detroit auto show, a fake police officer told swarming journalists to stay back or be cited for getting too close to innovation. The punishment, he warned by loudspeaker: 90 days in an Aztek.

Aware of the jabs, GM defends the vehicle, which melds attributes of a sport utility vehicle, van and sedan. They say that it is a misunderstood offering by an automaker with the guts to take a risk to spice up its product line.

"It's easy to pile on. Am I little disturbed by it? Yeah," said Don Butler, the Aztek's brand manager, acknowledging that "we didn't anticipate the barrage of negative press" over the polarizing vehicle.

"Not everybody loves it, and we knew it'd be the case," Butler said. "What I hope people would realize is we're doing something different here. I wish people would give us more credit.

Not all of these (risks taken) will go out of the ballpark, but we're a company that can afford to take some swings."

But most swings have only tested the Aztek's chin.

Since the new-generation SUVs combining ruggedness with carlike handling reached dealerships last July, just 11,700 of them have sold through December -- well off sales targets as high as 60,000.

Many aren't faulting the Aztek's functionality, with a V6 engine and a cabin where adopted minivan seats can fold, flip or be removed for more storage. Taking cupholding to an extreme, the Aztek sports a portable cooler that locks into the center console.

The common gripe: The vehicle described in one newspaper review as having a Hunchback of Notre Dame back is just plain hard on the eyes. "People look at it and say, 'Ooh, that's kinda ugly,'" said Stan Peck, a salesman at McConica Motors, a Buick, Pontiac and GMC dealership in Ventura, Calif. It has sold half of the Azteks that it received, with five still on the lot.

"It's not that they didn't sell; they just didn't catch on," Peck said. "Just the design, I think, has a lot to do with it. It's not a real appealing design."

Ask any Pontiac dealer, he said, "and I think you'll get the same answer." One dealer has told him that he backs up his Azteks against a wall so would-be buyers won't see the vehicles from behind.

At Prince Frederick (Md.) Motors, sales manager Rod Ritter said that the Pontiac, GMC and Oldsmobile dealership got a half-dozen Azteks last summer and sold them within 90 days.

"I think we're the aberration," Ritter said. "I know they're not the, quote, 'best-looking,' but we sold customers on the benefits and features of the vehicle and got a great response to it."

Ritter credits the quick sell there to the Aztek's "fantastic" drive and features, though he wouldn't mind the vehicle's design being given "a little softer edge."

Added Peck: "I don't know exactly what I'd do with it."

While saying earlier this month that the Aztek's design will be tweaked, GM attributed the lackluster sales to its price, not its look. The base model fetches $21,995, its GT-trim version $24,995.

Butler would not discuss what GM has in mind for the Aztek's makeover or pricing, other than to say that "we will do what it takes to make this vehicle successful."

"We think there's a market for it," he said. "We are definitely looking at ways to realize the vehicle's potential."

At Nextrend, analyst Chris Cedergren credited automakers with breaking new ground stylistically but said that Aztek designers went too far, creating a vehicle that he said looks awkward and funny.

"Styling is so subjective, but I think it's fair to say (the Aztek's) is a problem," he said.

His advice: Give the Aztek a "major redesign" and strive to make it one thing: cool.

"It's as simple as that. That word, four letters, is the key to the auto industry," he said. "Again, the problem so many automakers have today -- the biggest issue in the auto industry -- is understanding it's a fashion business. Detroit is no different than the garment business of New York. We are selling fashion."

Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.