Team-BHP - My 2012 Chevrolet Spark : A Comprehensive Review

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Great review mate! I'm always amazed to see how well BHPians maintain their cars and yours is no exception! If you wouldn't have mentioned that the car is from 2012, I would have guessed it was from 2015 or so.

I really think that the Spark was ahead of its competition at the time it came out. Other competitors came nowhere close to the appeal of an 'American' brand but on an 'Indian Budget'. I think Chevy got it right in their short stint in the market. I think my fellow BHPians would agree with me that the car has aged beautifully!

It makes me sad to think that Chevy couldn't sustain its potential in the Indian market. Would love to see Chevy make a proper return to India sometime soon. :thumbs up

Very nice review of Spark. I think most people have forgotten about this cute looking car. Your review reminded me of my childhood days.

We had a Daewoo Matiz and that happens to be the car on which I learned driving. I still have fond memories of that car. It was fast and excellent suspension when compared to Santro & Zen's of that time. Later on when Chevy brought Spark, we bought it in 2011 for my sister. Spark was good with suspension but steering was really hard, FE was low, brake pads used to get worn out easily and the gear shift was very poor. I guess Chevy never worked on that car to make it more appealing and upgrade the technology. One of the major reasons why Chevrolet had to shut its India unit as they lacked focus on marketing and upgrading technology.

Great review! Was reminded of my Dad's Spark, which he drove for over 10 years and more than 1,00,000 kms, before finally selling it last year. The car was quite trustworthy and had no significant issues during most of the ownership. In it's final years with us, it did have some electrical issues, but I think that was mostly due to disuse and rodents.

It was a great car to drive, and it's motor did reasonably well on highway drives. Easily held good speeds and felt planted. I was not a big fan of the centrally located instrument cluster, especially because it meant constant bickering from my parents about the speed we're going at.

My Dad's love for the Spark, made him buy the Chevrolet Sail Sedan (Petrol), despite my persuasion to go for other brands. Unlike the Spark, the Sail totally bombed in the market. The car still sits in our garage and my love-hate relationship continues. As it turns 7 now, I think it has served us well as well and would continue to do so in the future.

That was a really detailed review. Great effort. I too had a Spark a few years back. Was an excellent car for city use. My cousin bought that car from me and he is still very happy with it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 5019260)

Great review :thumbs up. Thanks for sharing, and the walk down memory lane. I was a big fan of the Daewoo Matiz (almost bought one for my sister) and the Chevrolet Spark (bought it for my bhabhi). Excellent car and superior to the competing Marutis & Hyundais in so many ways. For the price, the design + build + suspension were pretty darn good. My bhabhi happily used her Spark for many years, before upgrading to a Grand i10.

In the engine area though, I prefer Maruti's K10 and Hyundai's 1.1 & 1.2L motors.

Thanks again for sharing! Your car will go to our homepage this week :thumbs up.

Thanks for the kind words GTO. I agree with what you say completely. The core engineering and driving dynamics of the Spark were far better than the competing Suzukis and Hyundais of its time. Quite an achievement considering it was quite an old platform.

Thanks for the slot on the homepage. Means a lot :thumbs up

Quote:

Originally Posted by vigsom (Post 5019273)

That review of a Spark is as honest, detailed and stock as it can get. Except the internals of the engine and the gearbox, you've covered almost everything. Even bird poop was left as is. :D

My two highest speed rides on Indian highways were on the Spark - first one was in 2010 when I rode in a friend's 2007 Spark LT from Surat to Anand for a wedding. The second was in early 2017 from Chennai to Bangalore in a KA registered 2013 Spark LT. On both runs, the Spark was doing 130-140kmph effortlessly. Rubbery gear shifts and a low FE were probably the only downers in an otherwise well packaged car.

Hehe. The pigeons in my society love the Spark more than I do for some reason. Quite a toxic love triangle to be in. :D Jokes apart, I conquer with what you say. Overall driving dynamics are far ahead of the Santro and incomparable to the much inferior Alto even if you factor in the weak bottom end and notchy gearbox.

Good that you reminded me of the fuel efficency. I suspect the car is doing around 10-11 km/L under my driving style and I think that's par for the course considering my driving style. Thanks a lot for the kind words. Means a lot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shancz (Post 5019281)

Great review, brings back memories, We owned a Matiz and a Spark(2008) still runs in family.

Personally I didn't like the center mounted instruments and the throttle response which felt a bit indirect/lagging. The steering felt notably stiffer than the Matiz(non PS in both).
But outside of these the car was marvelous like already mentioned.
Agree with GTO and the suspension was the most underrated feature, I doubt how many current hatchbacks can match that.

Coming to repair costs, let me share an experience.
I had to get the car towed to a service center a couple of years ago (still functional then) after the gear seized in a traffic jam in the hills. The clutch plate material had melted and got stuck to the flywheel, looked like lava. The service center guys were extremely helpful and managed to scrape off the material and save the flywheel, unheard of these days especially when they had the flywheel available. We paid for a new clutch plate, cable and cover costing us 8-9k incl labour.
The repair costs seemed cheap but maybe I am just spoilt by looking at MSIL repair bills :D.

Thanks again for the thread, a very good morning indeed :)

Thanks a lot for the kind words. Its always a pleasure when a piece of writing or a review takes people down the memory lane and I am glad I could rekindle some of them.

I can personally confirm that spares were reasonable because the clutch on my own car has been changed once at 12K km. My grandfather's driving style was to blame for this. Total bill was a very surprising and reasonable 7K.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ashis89 (Post 5019284)

Excellent review of the Spark. Wish you many more happy years with it.

A close friend of mine had a red Spark LT which he loved to the core. Inspite of a weak bottom end, the response was better than my WagonR K10. That and a strong AC is what I liked about his ride. Even the suspension was slightly softer. It was a better car for the city than my WagonR.

Downer was the low FE, heavy steering and that quirky centre console. :)

Glad you liked the review.

I completely conquer. The centre console design and heavy steering were two downsides apart from the useless gearbox. Otherwise, the Spark more than made up in the driving dynamics department.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Latheesh (Post 5019290)

Hey, thanks for sharing your ownership review. I had 2009 modified model and according to me it was the best looking Spark both interior and exterior (it had full beige interior), later they started removing features to cut cost. Our car had body colour handles, body colour mirrors, roof rail, adjustable rear head rests, split rear seat, mud flaps, and floor mat as standard fitment in LT variant. Most of these are missing in later models. There was even an LT(O) variant with driver airbag+alloy wheels earlier.

Great to hear you had a 2009 Spark. One of the best years to own one. As you mentioned, the 2009 car came very well equipped and was almost enroaching on if not entering the B-segment territory. Chevrolet unfortunately lost it around 2012, and started offering this facelift with deleted features. Not that I am complaining here, I still find 3.7L an excellent amount to have been paid for this car, but yes, I do wish Chevrolet had retained the body coloured ORVMs and door handles if not alloy wheels for the top end.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Siva Prakash (Post 5019386)

This was a really good review, there was something about the way it was written that made it feel like a team-bhp official review.
The Spark is a really good car and I think it aged really well, just like my Ford Fiesta :).

You know the time put in is worth it when members compare your review to the team-BHP official reviews. :)

Both the Fiesta and Spark belong to an era of solidly built, well engineered no nonsense cars IMO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kamilharis (Post 5019403)

Great ownership report and it's a cute little car to own.

But I was not a big fan of the car mainly due to the way it drove. My uncle had one and I used to take "driver" duty once in a while whenever I visited him. It was a pain to drive Spark in the traffic and I literally hated driving it in the traffic. If the car is fully loaded then it becomes more painful in urban driving conditions. Keeping this fact & low FE aside, this is a good car to own in many other ways.

Spark was later sold for a mere sum and replaced with a Celerio AMT.

I agree with you. As I mentioned, the engine acts very sluggish anywhere below 1700rpm especially with the air con switched on. The hydraulic power steering which is a blessing on the highways, is a turnoff in the city and FE is again unimpressive though this isn't a surprise.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AKSarkar1 (Post 5019442)

Thanks a lot mate. Full credits to my grandfather for keeping this car the way it is. Even I could not believe this car was 8 years old when I first laid my hands on it!

Chevrolet were headless chickens. It was better they left rather than staying here and doing nothing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TJ02 (Post 5019481)

Thanks. Seeing lots of Daewoo owners coming forward on this thread and reliving memories. As I said before, I am glad this thread could be a reason for it.

I agree with all the downsides you have listed. Chevrolet could never improve on the car because it was frankly a very dated platform. They were much better off concentrating on the beat (which was actually a 2nd gen Spark).

Quote:

Originally Posted by lobojames9 (Post 5019497)

Thanks. My tuition teacher owns a Spark done 1.4L km. Abused on a daily basis. He has moved onto a Ford Freestyle, but still has the Spark. He likes the car so much that he wants another one now!

Quote:

Originally Posted by eyeman (Post 5019683)

That was a really detailed review. Great effort. I too had a Spark a few years back. Was an excellent car for city use. My cousin bought that car from me and he is still very happy with it.

Thanks a lot for the kind words! The Spark is timelessly engineered with solid mechanicals. It can last for a lifetime is what I believe.

We own a Chevrolet Uva 2009 which I had bought in college and i yet drive it regularly 12 years on!!

Believe me Chevy's made some really good value for money cars which never sold in numbers but the ones who bought it love them. Perhaps negative perception was the culprit.

My car has aged so well it is difficult to understand how. The engine and the suspensions are worth an applause really. Driven 100k + and going very strong!!

Nice review !

I remember the spark being a spacious car. There was one in our friend circle back in college and that thing endured a lot of rough driving and still held up well. Another remarkable small car from Chevrolet is the beat. Bad that things didn't end up well for them in India, but for when they were present they did give us some wonderful cars like the beat and the cruze.

A very awesomely summed up and crisp review of your little Chevy Vishy!
May this little car always Spark up some happiness and joy everytime you get behind its wheel. The Chevrolet Spark is a brilliant car for the city and also makes for a great first car due to its compact size and maneuverability . I have always been an admirer of the little spunk ! Enjoy your time with the car and I hope that it stays on in your family garage.
BTW when are the Momo Steering wheel and the alloys coming :D

The cars you learn to drive on always have a special place in one's heart. For me it was my grandma's 2002/3 Santro Xing. Perfect cars to learn to drive on.

Later I got a chance to drive my Uncle's ageing Daewoo Matiz and remember him telling me that it was one of the first hatchbacks with the tallboy design and had many more first to brag about.

A great review overall. Looking ahead to reading more of your experiences in the days to come.

Great Review !!

I own a Red LS LPG 2010 version. My first order of business coming across TBHP 5 years back was to read through spark car reviews as i did not bother with any of them during buying(I also didn't know much about cars at that time as no body in immediate family owned one). Decided to buy LPG vehicle on friend's suggestion. This was the only factory fitted one at that time (WagonR Duo stopped production). Visited showroom once and got the car delivered to home. Came to 4L on road.

My experiences with this car:

1. With 52000 KMS on ODO, overall i am happy with this car. It has never left me stranded anywhere. Parking is a breeze, feels planted. Perfect city car. Solid build compared to Alto, WagonR which i have driven. Have been rear-ended twice by cars and luckily escaped with just dents.
2. Spacious interiors (Helped by all beige interiors). I like the steering though my wife feels it a bit heavy. Controls are solid and nothing has broken so far.
3. 80% of KMS were covered with LPG fuel. Though it is sluggish with LPG, it didn't bother me much as i am a sedate driver. Managed 11-12 KMPL in LPG.
4. Hate boot space as it needs to accommodate spare tyre as well. Can hardly keep a medium size bag.
5. With full load, bottom scrapes even on normal speed breakers. Have to baby it a bit.
6. Had issues with clutch which ASS was not able to fix it properly. But after service visit with FNG, it is butter smooth now. Have been with FNG last 3 years and boy what a revelation it was. With 6 month service interval, ASS had been swindling me royally for 4 years with sub-par service.

Can easily run for another 5 years but have to replace soon for a bigger car mainly from comfort perspective and need for an automatic.

Good old Matiz! Have many good memories of that car. It was very cool and chic when it was launched. Things got a bit crowded by the time it became Spark, it was still a looker. I wouldn't consider Swift to be a timeless design! I am still struggling to accept it's looks.

Absolutely wonderful write up man! Just got the time to read through it. Only a true petrol head can write so passionately about cars that they never even wanted in their garage! clap:clap:

Spark is certainly a well packaged car when it was launched. The K10 and 1.2L engines did feel peppier by the time it was phased out. But still a “cute little car”.

And I thought you were to write about the power launches too? Or did I miss that in the write up?

Drive Safe,
R-Six

Nicely written, especially the last paragraph defining the Spark perfectly. It need not be perfect in any particular department but it's good enough in most. I learnt driving on my mom's 2009 Blazing Red Spark. Ours was very sparsely equipped as it was the base variant but we retrofitted it with Autocop and windows that wound up automatically once the car had been locked. My mom still insists that it was a handy feature she wishes modern cars came standard with although I'm not sure how safe it would be without anti-pinch. Our car was once accidentally started in gear by someone cleaning the interiors and it jumped into the car parked in front of it which was our own '04 Indigo. We never noticed that anything was wrong till the time we spotted a sizable dimple near the Chevrolet bowtie on the bonnet.

Nicely written review.

I had a 2010 Spark. Was trouble-free over the 5 years / ~45k kms for which it was with me.

A good city car because of its dimensions, returned good FE, and had a good suspension. Its pulling power especially with AC on was a problem.

I had chosen to buy Spark against all well-meaning advise/ reviews, and was not let down, neither by Spark nor by Chevy. The car I chose when I sold the Spark was also a Chevy - the Beat.

What a lovely review. Took me back to 2008-2013 when I owned the baby Chevy. One heck of a car that was. Super conformable and way better than the tin cans of those days. And the speed stability (110-120) on the Expressway was mind blowing for such a little car. Thanks for sharing !!!