Aztek is a bold and stylized treatment that you're either going to love or not. The aggressive design makes a polarizing statement that leaves no room for in-between opinions.

Despite origins from a platform that supports several General Motors minivans, there's no hint of minivan styling in the Aztek. And with its arching profile that rounds off the roofline at the rear, it doesn't look like a sport-utility box either. It's more like a racy four-door hatchback that's jacked up in back and mounted on a slab of bumpers and side cladding cast in a contrasted dark color.

In front, the wide track and stubby prow with tall bumper treatment sets up the chin-forward face of a snarling bulldog. Trapezoidal cat-eye headlamp clusters flank a twin-port grille over-scored by ram-air slots in the hood, with amber turn lights mounted above corner headlamps and round foglamps set below.

The front face tips decidedly rearward and the hood slopes up to the raked windshield as A pillars form rails that flow over B- and C pillars to meet the opposed D pillars sloping down to a squared tail. Creased shoulder planes run the length of both sides above flat doors and the low row of molded side cladding that bulges with rippled streaks implying motion.

In the rear, the flat tail shows the tall bumper below a narrow painted lip of a flip-down tailgate panel and the flip-up liftgate superstructure. It consists of a horizontal pane stacked vertically, followed by a canted pane tipping forward to match the slope of the windshield in reverse.