Page 49 - 2019 Auto Show Guide

concept car, was created by Harley Earl.

1938 Buick Y-Job, the industry’s first

2. Isuzu VehiCROSS (1999)

While many of you probably don’t remember the VehiCROSS (or Isuzu,
for that matter), it was simply one of the strangest and most interesting
SUVs ever to grace American roads. Why does it matter? Because it was
the other, far less successful, side of the Lexus RX 300 coin. While the
Lexus abandoned any pretensions of an off-roading, active lifestyle, the
VehiCROSS cranked them all up to eleven — and then it smashed the TV
and threw it out the window into the pool. It was fabulously strange, and
I desperately wanted one.

1. Pontiac Aztek (2001)
Wait, what? How could
this list contain one of the
most mocked and reviled
conveyances of all time?
Bear with me: in a time
when you can have a pic-
nic on the back tailgate of
your Rolls Royce Cullinan
while listening to classical
music (probably Bach), the Pontiac Aztek’s similar features don’t seem
so silly. In fact, they seem downright prescient. But most of all, the Aztek
was the kitchen sink approach: give the market all of the features and all Jack Gayle is an Atlanta-based
of the styling and see what sticks. It was a testbed for what was to come automotive blogger, photographer,
and how the SUV was to evolve, and it logically bridges the gap between and videographer. His work has
the mass appeal and unrestrained success of the Lexus RX 300 and the appeared on various social media
niche-fulfilling design and performance of the BMW X6. platforms as well as on Automobile’s
website.
Plus, it was in Breaking Bad, and that will always be cool.

37 ANNUAL ATLANTA INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW 45
TH