General Motors unveiled the Pontiac Aztek concept in 1999 to win Generation X buyers, with designer Tom Peters, later of the C7 Corvette, told to make it extreme. The 2001 production model had to sit on GM’s U-body minivan platform shared with the Pontiac Montana, whose tall cowl forced a steep hood and awkward proportions. Built at Ramos Arizpe in Mexico, it was mocked as a gargoyle on launch in summer 2000. Inside it offered 94 cubic feet of cargo space, room for a 4 by 8 foot plywood sheet, a split tailgate with molded seats and cup holders, a removable cooler console, a 400-pound rolling cargo tray and a camping package with a tent, air mattress and compressor.

J.D. Power named it the most appealing entry SUV of 2001, and its Versatrak all-wheel drive used G-rotor pumps and clutch packs rather than viscous couplings. GM needed 30,000 sales a year to break even but peaked at about 27,800 in 2002 and fell to just over 5,000 by 2005, because the young buyers it targeted could not afford a $27,000 to $30,000 vehicle. GM cut prices, painted the cladding, and added a Rally Edition and DVD screens before ending production in December 2004. In 2008 Breaking Bad gave Walter White a drab green Aztek, and by 2015 Edmunds reported millennial demand it called the Breaking Bad Effect.

• GM had projected sales of up to 75,000 units a year.
• An optional head-up display projected speed and radio data onto the windshield.
• Rear stereo controls in the cargo area ran a 10-speaker Pioneer system.
• Steve McConnell’s Code Complete 2 uses the Aztek as a case study in design by committee.
• GM replaced it with the Pontiac Torrent on the more conventional Theta platform.