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Naming strategy: Pontiac Aztek hangs its brand name off a whole civilization.

MILL VALLEY, CA. Mar. 5, 2002. Bad enough that the Pontiac Aztek is an also ran, badly deformed insult to the term SUV. But after decades of cars named after American Indians (Pontiac, Cherokee, Navaho) now we have a car that appropriates the legacy of an entire civilization. The naming strategy here probably went something like this: Aztec equals great power and if we change the “c” at the end to a “k” it implies the marriage of power and technology. This is the kind of happy horseshit that clients love to hear from a naming company.