I wrecked my 2005 Pontiac Aztec at 70MPH on highway after hitting some black ice and don’t have full coverage. Will need to do repairs myself. I damaged the front bumper, passenger side panel and destroyed both head light assembly’s and passenger turn signal. I found a 2003 Pontiac Aztec on Craigslist for 200 dollars with 297,000 miles on it. I am curious if the internal parts will match for 2005 and in a pinch could I make the 2003 bumper and side panel fit on my 2005. Thanks for all of your help. Have a blessed day Peter.
From what I can tell from googling the two years there is very little that changed, if anything. Take a look at the one you found on Craigslist. For sure, the underneath parts look to be identical. Also the bumper cover is the same parts number on Rockauto. You might check out Rockauto.com to see if other parts numbers they carry are the same for both years. I bet they are.
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Before you spend any money, you should check for 'frame" damage. And check for rust while you are at it. It may not be repairable.
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Thank you and god bless!
Here are the images for the Aztek over the years.
It didn’t change much because of it’s initial failure in styling.
I actually know someone who was involved in the design/styling of the Aztek.
And it’s a very interesting story.
Tester
Were drugs involved?
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I’m not sure there are enough drugs in the world to blame them alone for the design…
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If you live in a major metro area you might check your local libary for a Hollander Interchange manual. That is what the salvage yards use and it will tell you for sure what fits what. A friendly counterperson at the local yard may be willing to throw a few free bits of info your way if asked politely.
After the introduction of the Nissan Juke I’ve come to even appreciate the Aztek a little bit…
When Bob Lutz took over GM some years ago he said in a magazine interview that the first thing he did was go looking for the people who were behind the Aztek and no one ever 'fessed up.
The Pontiac dealer here sold a ton of those Azteks and there’s a huge number of them still on the road here.
That’s the method I use when I want to find what model years are part-compatible. My local Pick and Pull will usually print the list out for me if I go there & ask.
The word around the industry was that the Aztek was a bit of a “gift” to retiring head of Design, Wayne Cherry. He championed the design, although I read that the proportions fell victim to corporate platform sharing causing the car to look as bad as it did. Car level execs were given Azteks as company cars and told to SMILE when driving them and show them off to all their neighbors.
Design blamed similar coprorate platform sharing on the “high water” 1988 Buick Regal. Designed around a too low bumper height that, once corrected, showed massive amounts of open wheelhouse above the tire. All the glamour shots of the car were taken with the cars sandbagged to lower the height and close the massive gap. Ooops.
But I’d like to hear Oops, @Tester (not @VOLVO_V70 's) story on the Aztek. C’mon, give it up!
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Tester is the one who has the Aztec story.
If you google carparts.com & fill out the blanks for your vehicle & the part you’re looking for , sometimes they will also list a different year model part on their list . I assume this means the different year models used the same part .
Obviously.
Hey, no! You can’t do a tease like that without telling us the story!
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http://gmauthority.com/blog/2014/10/beautiful-failure-bob-lutz-talks-pontiac-aztek/
The person I knew was a CADD designer at GM at the time. And was involved with the actual body styling of the Aztek.
If you said anything negative about the Aztek, you were kicked off the team. (read fired)
This person use to get up every morning, dreading going to work because they knew the project that they were working on was a disaster.
Tester
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Talk about a vehicle that was so ugly it was only loved by it’s “mother”…and an aggressively protective one at that.
But it “met all its (corporate project) goals!” as the manager said in the article. Yeah, all but the sales goals.
The Aztek will forever be the image of a high school chemistry teacher that cooked meth (from Breaking Bad). Ironic, given an earlier comment about the involvement of drugs in the design…
That show actually did a great job choosing vehicles for its characters. Jesse’s Tercel was a great analog to how badly his life went down the tubes after teaming up with Walter.
Gus, who wants luxury and wealth but doesn’t want to attract any attention, drives a Volvo.
Hank projects a tough-guy cop image but deep down he’s anything but, and can’t handle the situations he finds himself in, so naturally he drives a Jeep Commander which projects a rugged, take-on-anything image while being anything but.
The Aztek was a perfect representation of Walter’s inability to make good decision, from storming out of the company he founded just before it made him a billionaire to deciding that cooking meth was a great way to provide for his family.
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