I’ve owned a Pontiac Aztek for some time. Now almost four years into its life, some stranger struck up a conversation about it.

He asked “What model year is that?”, I replied “2002”. Bombshell: “It looks like it just rolled off the show floor.”.

OK, he didn’t exactly say that it looked attractive. And in fact the car just came out of a good thorough wash / repairs at Brennan. But still, someone saying something good about this odd-looking vehicle? It reminds me of an earlier editorial by my colleauge Vlad Makarov, who saw Big Yellow Car (license plate “ELASTIC” of course) in our office parking garage. With a sweet Russian accent, he said “It is so … ugly … but I just can’t stop looking at it!”.

I still like this funny car. It has some problems, but it’s a comfortable, reasonable with fuel, sturdy 4-wheel-drive widget. And its name is similar to our airplane.