Now GM has idled the plant in Mexico that makes the Aztek. About 500 rentals are in Florida this weekend. At Daytona International Speedway, the Aztek pace car beefed up with a supercharger and 330 horsepower is being shown to racing fans for feedback. Meanwhile, designers are cooking up tack-on cladding to camouflage the heavily criticized rear. Aztek's failure to catch on is especially galling to GM because it is its first crossover vehicle, the segment analysts expect to be hottest over the next few years.
Crossovers have aspects of both sport-utility vehicles and cars.
In contrast, Ford Motor and Mazda brought out Escape and Tribute, competitors that have outsold Aztek by healthy margins despite several recalls. Besides the questionable design, GM may have flubbed the pricing in terms of attracting younger Survivor watchers. We aren't thrilled with the results so far, but we are hopeful it can do around 45,000 a year.