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Chevrolet Spark car review

11/02/10

Price6945-£9845
We like...Cabin space
We don't...Noisy engine

All-new baby Chevy replaces long-in-the-tooth Matiz city car. But is it good enough to meet and beat its top rivals?This is the Spark, Chevrolet’s new baby car. For those who dismiss the make as merely re-badged Daewoos, well, it’s time to stop sneering.

Because with the arrival of this car to replace the long-running Matiz, there’ll be only one car left in the range that started life wearing a Daewoo badge. The Spark’s an all new design to tempt buyers after a five-door, five-seat small car at a low price.

For its size, the cabin’s well though-out. It’s roomy and entry/exit is a cinch thanks to those big doors. In a styling detail borrowed from Alfa Romeo, the outer handles of the rears are tucked into the window surround, giving a smoother, less cluttered look around its flanks. The boot’s big for the car, and the rear seats on most models split and fold near-flat to free up enough space for garden rubbish or a small flat-pack bookcase.

And with its curving design and raft of storage trays and nooks, it’s clear the designers have toiled to make the cabin as handy as can be. The motorcycle-style instrument pod looks natty, too, and helpfully groups the essentials dead-ahead of the driver. More’s the pity then that the plastics covering the dash and doors are particularly brittle and cheap-looking. It you choose the top-spec LT it ds at least come with body coloured (or silver) dash panels that look pretty cool.

Chevrolet Spark All up, the picture is of a car definitely built to a price – an impression underlined by the fact that, in the cheaper models, the steering column is non-adjustable. Add in a seat in which –weirdly – only part of the base adjusts for height and you’ve a car that you may not drive comfortably if you’re very short or tall. In the top-spec LT, it the steering raises and lowers. But all do, at least, have six airbags and all except the entry model boast air conditioning and remote locking.

On the move the car rides comfortably, showing none of the front-to-back pitching that little cars can do. Chevrolet offers the cars in some jolly colours – notably an eyeball-smarting green – and a choice of optional stickers intended to gladden younger owners. But though it may look sporty-bright, there’s little get-go about the way it steers and accelerates. While the wheel gives more driver feedback than you’ll experience in some rivals, the car leans into bends and feels woolly, although it actually grips well.

Chevrolet Spark Chyevrolet Spark As for the engines? There’s a 1.0 and 1.2, both posting identical fuel economy and exhaust emissions figures. And when you drive there’s little to pick between them. As expected the bigger has (a little) more pep but both are noisy when revved and neither feels especially willing.
At motorway speeds there’s enough engine and wind racket to make a long trip into a chore although, to be fair, it’s no worse than in rival cars and, for a pair of ‘new’ engines, the fuel economy and emissions outputs are scarcely up with the best.

Should you buy one? The Spark’s not without appeal. But similar money buys a Hyundai i10 (with a five-year warranty to the Spark’s three), a Kia Picanto (with a seven-year warranty) or a Fiat Panda (three years cover – but a cracking car). The Citrn C1, Peugeot 107 and Toyota Aygo, meanwhile, are better to drive and have a plain and simple charm that the Spark lacks. We'd pick any of these first.

* Note that insurance groups quoted below are according to new 1-50 groups scale