Consider the 2001 Pontiac Aztek. Or the 1982 Cadillac Cimarron. How about the 1991 Chevrolet Caprice? Don't forget the 1990 Chevrolet Lumina APV, General Motors' early stab at a front-drive minivan.
What do those vehicles have in common? They quickly earned widespread derision from automotive critics and buyers alike.
In 2001, present-day GM product boss Bob Lutz, who then was CEO of Exide Technologies, coined the term "angry kitchen appliances" to refer to the Aztek and similar designs emerging at that time. The Cimarron was a transparent rebadge of a bare-bones Chevy Cavalier.
The Caprice, described as bloated and bathtub-shaped, flopped when the market shifted to smaller, fwd cars. And the pointy-nosed Lumina APV earned one of the industry's most entertaining car nicknames when consumers began calling it the "Dustbuster."