Back in the bad old days at GM, the people in charge of vehicle manufacturing had huge control over how vehicles looked. Designers knew what they wanted GM’s first crossover to look like, but in the convoluted corporate world of the 1990s, GM's manufacturing team wouldn’t give it to them. The excuse? It would have cost too much.
That decision cost GM dearly… and not just in dollars.
The hideous slab-sided production horror that debuted in 2001 shares little with the 1999 concept pictured here. Their proportions are completely different. The most visible alteration was to the angular roof of the concept that looked much like the production Chevrolet Equinox. If the concept had made it to production, the fate of the Aztek would have likely been much different. Instead, the Aztek earned its title as the ugliest car in the world and helped kill off the Pontiac brand.
Source: OldConceptCars.com
