Archive for January, 2009

General Motors Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner has been in the news a lot lately.  I actually met Rick back in 2005 as part of a lavish four day GM event when I was working for a GM affiliate .  GM paid the airfare, put me up at the Ritz Carlton and I was wined and dined like I had never experienced before or since. The good old days when GM had no worries, all the money in the world and was willing to spend it.  I met Rick at a catered dinner at the GM Heritage Center.  The Heritage Center was car heaven with a great collection of classic GM cars.  One car I don’t remember seeing there was the most ugly car ever designed…the Pontiac Aztek.  I came across this article in Business Week that tells of GM’s plan to sell some of the Heritage cars

Whenever I read about GM’s financial troubles I remember the money they spent on that event, plus the butt ugly Aztek and I’m not really surprise of their troubles.  Here’s what Business Week had to say about the Aztek…

If you are into “notorious” cars, this might be the pick of the auction. The Aztek is synonymous now with bad design. The way some people say the “Cadillac of…” or “the Lexus of…” Now, people in the auto industry might say a bad design was “Honda’s Aztek.” GM rarely parts with “first-off-the-line” cars, but they made an exception here. This car was so badly received by the press that GM, to this day, won’t say which designer’s pen was responsible. The guy is in some kind of witness-protection program. The car had such a small and loyal following, though, that GM thinks that some of the Aztek nuts might come out of the woodwork and bid the price up.