AtWhatMileage
Body · 10 owner reports

Other body or interior problem on the 2002 Pontiac Aztek

Reports of this failure 10
With an odometer reading 9
Reports per 1,000 built 0.2 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 56%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $200–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 5th

When other body or interior problem gets reported

Owners of the 2002 Pontiac Aztek report other body or interior problem at a median of 25,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 110,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 102,692 miles across the middle 80% of reports.

A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.

56% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 9 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
7,800 miles 18,000 miles 25,000 miles 92,402 miles 110,492 miles

Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.

What a percentile can and cannot tell you here

These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.

What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.

Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.

What happens, and what it costs

Putting it right typically runs $200–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 3 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 40,000 miles.

By volume the 2001 carries the most reports, with 12; the 2002 has 10. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.

If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.

Median
  1. 2001 Pontiac Aztek other body or interior problem 42k
  2. 2002 (this one) 25k
  3. 2003 Pontiac Aztek other body or interior problem 19k
  4. 2004 Pontiac Aztek other body or interior problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  5. 2005 Pontiac Aztek other body or interior problem 35k

Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

The dealer had serviced the vehicle several times regarding the driver's side door. The door failed to latch properly and could open when driving. Dealer diagnosed the hinges were too weak, which resulted in them coming out of adjustment and caused the door not to lock properly.*ak *jb

8,000 miles NHTSA complaint 419791 filed 2003-07-23

Water leaking in under front dash during rain storms; LED to mildew and mold growing on seats, floor, shifter, windows, & doors throughout car. Happened several times, thought first time was my fault, next time it definitely was not. *nlm

25,000 miles NHTSA complaint 427119 filed 2003-08-26

While driving doors would lock and unlock on their own, front driver and passenger windows lowered while driving, and headlights flashed on/off, causing poor visibility when driving at night. Also, dashboard lights came on and off. *ak

23,000 miles NHTSA complaint 436735 filed 2003-10-23

Also reported on the 2002 Pontiac Aztek

Wheel bearing or hub failure

18 reports median 41k

Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure

15 reports median 70k

Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure

10 reports median 68k

Other brake problem

10 reports median 45k

Other electrical problem

9 reports median 85k

Overheating

8 reports median 51k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 10 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.

Questions this page answers

At what mileage does other body or interior problem happen on the 2002 Pontiac Aztek?

Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 25,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other body or interior problem on the 2002 Pontiac Aztek?

10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.

What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars

Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed