Pontiac Aztek VS Honda Element: Which Is The Better Adventure Car?

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Following the stratospheric rise in popularity of the SUV throughout the 1990s, the first decade of the 21st century saw plenty of car manufacturers trying to break into new markets and build vehicles that catered to people with “active lifestyles,” by which of course they mean they occasionally go hiking and camping and want a car that reflects this to the world. These people didn’t need a “real” truck-based SUV, but they wanted something car-based and economical that still looked like it could handle rough terrain.

Honda and Pontiac, both keen to make a splash in this new segment, took the principles of the everyday “adventure” vehicle to the extreme, resulting in two of the most infamous, controversial, and ironically cool vehicles the car world has yet seen: the Element and the Aztek, respectively.

They’re both precursors to the modern-day crossover, and underneath their questionable designs, they both came packed with all kinds of neat features meant to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. It clearly worked for both brands, as the Element and Aztek were both very popular cars in their days.

The burning question now is to find out which one of these ugly ducklings was the better “adventure car.”

If you found yourself looking over the features list for the Pontiac Aztek back in the early-2000s, you might have thought for a second or two that you were actually reading the flyer for a camping supply shop, rather than a brochure for one of America’s weirdest production cars. It came with a removable cooler for a center console, an Aztek-branded air mattress, and of course, the famous Aztek tent, which you can see deployed in the picture above. The tent essentially turned the rear end of the car into a makeshift motorhome.

The Honda Element, on the other hand, was a relatively tame vehicle when it came to strange quirks. Its design beats out the Aztek for overall weirdness, not for its shape, rather for its backward-opening rear doors and its headlights that align below the level of the grille. Even the Aztek’s front end looks cleaner by comparison, but that’s not saying much.

The Element also has some clever interior design, including rear seats that fold flat and up against the rear side windows, revealing a completely flat and easily washed rubber-coated floor beneath them, for stashing all your muddy camping gear or keeping your dog from tracking dirt all through your interior.

RELATED: Here’s Why The World Needs More Cars Like The Pontiac Aztek

Starting with the Element, it was based on the same platform Honda was using for the CR-V and thus had

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By: Sam Berube
Title: Pontiac Aztek VS Honda Element: Which Is The Better Adventure Car?
Sourced From: www.hotcars.com/pontiac-aztek-vs-honda-element-which-is-the-better-adventure-car/
Published Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2020 14:45:49 GMT

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