The automotive world often rewards not-so-bold moves like a Japanese company copying the British formula of lightweight, RWD, front-engined roadster. Unfortunately, it usually punishes true boldness. Which is sad as boldness produces such amazingness. What's your favorite automotive failure?
Perhaps the biggest single automotive failure of my lifetime, one synonymous with bad ideas and horrible execution is the Pontiac Aztek. Ask anyone, even someone who doesn't know anything about cars, what the ugliest car ever built was and more often then not they'll say Aztek. Even today, years after it went away and at a time when the brand no longer exists, TV shows like Breaking Bad use the Pontiac Aztek to signify someone whose life has completely fallen apart. To quote Prince Richard in The Lion In Winter in response to the claim it doesn't matter how you die if you're going to die: "When the fall is all there is, it matters." The Pontiac fell in a big way and it's demise still provides amusement and, since it was an early example of a high-utility crossover, it's still an inspiration for designers hoping to create the next big thing without creating the next Aztek.
Whether you like the product or not, what's your favorite failure?
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