No modern car has ever been criticized as harshly as the Pontiac Aztek. But while it was considered the ugliest car in the world at the time of its launch, it's become a bit of a cult crossover.
This is mainly due to a star TV show role. However, car people are now taking a second look at it simply because of the design.
Did you ever wonder what an Aztek would look like today if the model survived? Well, that's precisely what YouTube artist The Sketch Monkey does for a living, and this piece is especially interesting since we're coming up on the Aztek's 20th birthday.
That's right, the Pontiac high-rider came out in 2001 and was around for only five years. Mint-condition models are selling for big bucks, but this transformation requires only a couple of photos and the kind of Photoshop skills we don't have.
The artist calls this "the most challenging redesign I've ever done." It required three days in the monkey sketch lab just for the back, the front being an earlier project. So remember, just because the sped-up version of the process looks easy doesn't mean it was.
The first thing that ages a car are the lights, so the artist immediately drops the old ones and "installs" some sexy LEDs. The rear bumper gets one of those diffuser elements with an exhaust opening on either side because, in 2021, everything has got to be sporty.
Bigger wheels and tires give it a more off-road-ready look while the sides get cleaned up for a cleaned-up look. For the record, it's mostly the 2001 model year that's ugly, with unpainted black plastic everywhere.
The front gets largely untouched, partly because it's the trademark of this car, but also because split headlights are considered cool now.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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