The history of the Pontiac Aztek, from conception through to its legacy. Why did GM green-light this car when focus groups said they hated it, and why did it come with a tent?

In part one we looked at electric vehicles and hybrids from the 1960s and 70s. We now move onto the 1980s where individuals all around the world didn’t want to give up on finding an alternative to the internal combustion engine. These were the days before our knowledge of global warming, and the motivation was around reducing city pollution and freedom from the reliance on foreign oil.

You might not think it, but the 60s and 70s were a hot bed of innovation in electric car design. Environmental and political events collided that got people questioning our reliance on the internal combustion engine and thinking about alternatives. So why was so much effort put into electric cars when so few people bought them, and how close did we come to perfecting hybrid and EV technology?

After decades of progress, and at a time Nissan were going to make their next step forward with the luxury Infiniti brand, Nissan’s Figaro was in a sense a next evolution in car design, in progress, but at the same time it was an exercise in looking back, of taking stock of just how far Nissan had come. It was also a conscious effort by its designers to push against progress with something more gentle and organic. But the Figaro didn’t come out of a vacuum. It was the culmination of several years of new design thinking. So, how popular was the “organic” Figaro in its native Japan, and how has it found a new home on the other side of the planet?

At the dawn of a new millennium car buyers were spoilt for choice when it came to really clever and innovative cars. There was the Renault Scénic, the original MPV that showed you can pack a large family into not a lot of car. Then there was the Mercedes A class, a masterclass in space management, with a cleverly packaged engine that allowed for the maximum interior space. And don’t forget the hideous but highly innovative Fiat Multipla that offered three wide seating that could be removed to turn a family car into something that could best a Volvo estate. Audi entered the fray with another highly innovative car, the A2. It followed on the heels of the TT, another car that took Audi to new engineering heights. The A2 was Audi’s new mass car, a vehicle they hoped would appear on every middle class family’s driveway. Yet, the car was a colossal failure, only selling 176,000 cars before its production run was unceremoniously cut short. Just why was that, and how was it so innovative?

When Europe produced hot hatches in the 80s it was cars like the Renault 5 Turbo and the Ford Fiesta XR2 – great cars that took the regular hatchback and added more power and better brakes. Over in Japan Honda took a different tack. They crafted a new, very low drag shape for the existing Civic. They also removed a lot of weight. Together with a range of powerful yet efficient range of engines they created a car with great handling, acceleration, and fuel economy that had more in common with the MG Midget than the MG Metro. Some car journalists heralded it as the future of compact sports cars. So, was the Honda CR-X God’s gift to small hatchbacks or did it have its flaws, and what the heck happened with the third generation car?

What’s going on with Alpine? They’ve had one car on sale since 2018, the A110, with only a second model appearing a couple of months ago, and that’s a rebadged Renault 5. In 6 years they’ve only sold 19,000 cars. And it’s not they’re selling $1M exotic Bugatti’s, The A110 is sold as a relatively affordable sports car. Alpine’s parent Renault have poured a LOT of cash into the brand, and even more into sponsoring a Formula 1 team, and many other motorsports championships, and all with little to show for it. On the face of it, it seems nonsensical, money thrown down the drain, and that was my opinion until I looked a little into Alpine’s strategy. So, just what’s going on, what’s are its chance of success and with the brand haemorrhaging money, and will Renault wind it up before the strategy has a chance to play out?

Ford’s styling department in the 1980s and 1990s could be relied upon to produce hit after hit. We liked the third generation Fiesta, we loved the Mondeo and the Ka, and we positively adored the Ford Focus. But in that period there was one car that stuck out like a sore thumb, the 1994 Ford Scorpio.

Buy the Secret Fords book here! Use promo code BIGCAR30 for a total of 30% off the final copies: https://www.stevesaxty.com/secretfords

There’s a lot of focus on the rivalry between the German big three – Volkswagen, BMW & Mercedes, but in Sweden of course there was a rivalry between the “big two” – Volvo and Saab. So, as Volvo’s cars got larger and went upmarket in the 1970s, Saab must have surely taken note and decided that they had to respond. The result was the Saab 9000, produced even though Saab didn’t have the money to develop it. Just how did they find the cash, and was it a hit or was it a miss?

A few months ago I made a video about EVs that touched on robotaxis, and with Tesla’s recent Robotaxi event I thought I’d make a quick follow-up video talking about what was announced.