2002 Pontiac Aztek from North America - Comments

Nothing yet.

I bought this vehicle because it handles and feels like a car, plus I'm riding high, which I had gotten used to in my GMC.

Very roomy and hauls lots of stuff cross-country well (done this twice so far).

Gas mileage is excellent for this size car - about 27 mpg highway. Not so good in the city, but I can live with that.

Eye catching - people either love 'em or hate 'em. I personally thought it was totally ugly until I drove it, then it grew on me fast enough to buy it the next day.

The cooler is, well, cool! The storage options for the cargo area rock. Sorry, I don't have the tent.

I felt it was a little pricey, but then I want this car for the price of a Kia! Oh well. A good buy nonetheless.

Lived in Alabama during the summer and the A/C was always cold. Now I live in northern Ohio and cold startups are rough, but she kicks on without too much argument. Superb handling in the snow - I have good tread on all-weather tires and they have done excellent so far even in heavy snow.

Please keep posting how you like your Azte, we are thinking of buying one when we move back to the states later this year. It's a steal with a $4750 military rebate, plus a five year warranty.

Its June of 04 and GM is currently offering a $5000 rebate if you own another GM product and at least one dealer is willing to knock off another $1200 off of the sticker making it really attractive.

Addendum to the original survey from the author: At 45,000 (last week) the front wheel bearings on both sides began to fail. I got them repaired, but watch out if this happens to you. A catastrophic failure can result in the wheels falling off the vehicle, which is considered bad by most. Also, the A/C blower is sticking on high all the time. This is a relatively simple repair inside the passenger's side dash.

I am looking at purchasing a new Aztek as my dad is able to get some incredible deals for me. I am leary after reading your posts about your recent troubles. What year do you have and is it awd or fwd? Thanks for you help!

Update from the owner of '02 Aztec above: I'm at 75,000+ due to heavy cross-country travel. Right now the A/C quit blowing cold, but she's four years old and I've personally never owned a GM that didn't need AC service at 3-4 years.

Other than that, no complaints so far. I had two accidents with her. In one I lost control in a very heavy snow (I was driving too fast for conditions) and hit a guard rail at 10 mph tops. Front end is damaged, but airbags did not deploy thank God. Did about $300 damage to the rail and around $1,700 damage to the front bumper cover and headlight trim. Those parts are *very* expensive. The estimate had only a few hours labor for the repair. The driver's ego sustained some bruising, but that's it. The safety systems performed well in this low-speed accident. And the trooper didn't give me a ticket, either.

In the other she was parked, unoccupied when, I suspect, a snowplow blade hooked between the p/s taillight and the lift gate as the plow drove by. The car was pushed about 3-feet to one side of the parking space and the liftgate was shattered. It was a blinding snowstorm and I didn't find the damage until going to work the next day. After screaming various explicatives, shoveling snow from the cargo area and about $2,300 later for a new lift gate, taillights, various interior trim panels and cleanup, it was a whole car again. The snowplow was never located so State Farm paid for this one.

Also, my windshield was recently cracked from flying rocks. The FM antenna is embedded in the windshield, too, which can make this a tricky repair. Not sure what the price is, though, since I'm still driving legal with the cracks, for now!