GM Designer Tom Peters on Camaro, Corvette, & Pontiac Aztek

[Bertha II]

Sure.......

Originally Posted by EmeryZ28

saw one of these on the road a few weeks ago. I have to say, without the body cladding it looks no worse, probably better than many cars on the road today. Such as Hyundai Veloster, Nissan Juke, Kia Soul, Nissan Cube and I am sure there are more!






It was an odd little car before its time. I had a crunchy neighbor that used to take his camping all over new england. The rear actually turned into some sort of tent. I think if it came out today, with slightly rounder edges it could be sold to the people who are flocking to the array of ugly little nerd cars that have since flooded our streets

[silverds]

The Aztek could have been better. Seriously.









See. Now, they've got it.

[TastyBake]

Aztek didn't look that bad to me.

But I agree that when other teams get involved, then that's when designs started going bad.

In an interview w/ Bob Lutz, I heard him tell a story I'd never forget. He said the new 2004 Grand Prix design tested worse than the 97-2003 (aka pool from people).
He went to the head designer and said:
Bob Lutz: "This looks terrible!"
Head Designer: "I know".
Bob Lutz: "You're the designer and you say its bad?! What happened?".
Head Designer: "I have no control over it."

As he recounts, “To my surprise, I found GM’s research methodology to be excellent, much like that used to great success by Chrysler, and in some ways even superior.” The actual problem: “a general disdain for consumer input.” GM executives were disregarding clinic scores that were mediocre at best, and that were often awful. Vehicles like the Aztek were approved despite failing in clinics because revisions would require missing critical time and costs targets. The Vehicle Line Executives (VLEs) chose a probable future failure in the marketplace over a certain immediate failure to achieve their goals.

...When the 2004 Grand Prix tested worse than the old design, the VLE reacted by telling the senior executive board that he wanted to take a baseball bat to the research group. Apparently the board bought this “argument,” as they approved the design despite the clinic results. The market then vindicated the clinic.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...esign-clinics/

Bob's issue was MBA grads focused only on P&L destroyed a lot of the designs. He had to fight w/ them to add 2 USB ports into the Cruze.

[King Sun]

lol now the aztek was a great looking car...............

[slick rick]

Heisenberg Aztek