The Pontiac Aztec sold only 25 cars in 2007. That's right. Only 25 cars. More rare than a Ferrari. And some think Ferrari sales are low.
First thing to come to mind before I even clicked on this thread was "Asstec", followed by "Nah...they must have killed that thing a few years ago". Apparently, GM thought the market would come around, and held on to hope, against what 99.99999999999999% of the world was telling them. Way to go. And GM wonders why Toyota is kicking their asstec.
I was reading in evo magazine that they have sold 18 Maybachs in the UK. Not just this year, but ever! Remember the Izuzu Vehicross? That was pretty hideous, rare, too.
An unbelievably stupid looking vehicle. It really was hard to believe they'd try to sell a vehicle that was that badly proportioned. Makes you wonder if there was one suit with all the pull on the final decision, and everyone else was afraid to say anything. Really, really BAD!
Alfred Sloan, Harley Earl, and Bill Mitchell and my friend Dave Holls, are spinning in their graves plotting revenge! How that car got to production is as bad judgement as the $2 Billion + Deal with FIAT! Off with their heads! Make them walk the Gangplank, and feed their BALLS, to the SHARKS!!! Ciao...Paolo
The really sad part of this is that they stopped building the Aztec in 2005 and the 25 cars sold in 2007 had been sitting on dealer lots since 2005. They were so ugly they couldn't give em away... Even more rare are going to be the 3 new cars still left on lots that may be sold in 2008, 2009 or later.
After years of chastising GM for making one dull car after another, maybe this is what we get. GM's only significant design of the last 25 years has been the '84 Corvette C4; and the basis for the C5/C6), which was a pleasant derivative of the Ferrari 308. Everything else has been innocuous or ugly. I don't know how such a huge company, which has access to real talent, continues to blunder through the design aspects of cars.
The only thing that frightens me more than the sight of that vehicle is the humanoid behind the wheel that actually paid money for it.
Actually, the story goes, the R&D for the project exceeded 2x's the allocated budget. GM's uppers got light of this and forced them to put whatever they had into production. Since it was hideous and sold so poorly (under the 30K mark the first year which would allow them to break even), the execs were allegedly forced to drive them. Also, there's a site for fanatics or to us, they would be called car enthusiasts gone wrong: http://www.aztekfanclub.com/
I am always surprised when I see those Phaetons, however I do see one a week assuming it's not the same one every week.
Funny you should mention that one - I just saw one. We've got quite a few in the DFW area, too. It's still a bit of a rarity to see one.
I thought about buying one as a work vehicle. Reasons: 1) You could get them for just about NOTHING - I mean thousands and thousands UNDER invoice! 2) It's so hideous and has such a rap as being a failure of a vehicle, that I figured if I got one and painted it up with the company name for use at work, it would actually get some attention!
In the UK a Ford model (the Mondeo V6 sporty one) was outsold by an Aston Martin model (DB9 I think?)