Chevy SPARK :: Best Value for Money in it's segment

A year and a couple of months crossed, and little spark is rocking.

Mileage - 17kmpl in city, 24 on freeway

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I have been planning to buy a car since April 2011. Initialy I was eyeing at the mid segment cars (5-7 Lakhs price range) and was nearly fixed my mind to go for Tata. Test drove a few sedans too (Linea, Manza, Indigo CS). Keeping fuel economy in mind I did not buy any of the sedans. After quite a fea testdrives and few months of research I finally settled my eyes on Alto K10, Maruti Swift, Hyundai i10 and Chevrolet Beat. Spark was not in my first list.

Swift is awesome car, but there are too many of them on the road. It is too common.

Alto K10 has good mileage, but Maruti interiors are really cheap. God knows when Maruti will stop taking their customers for granted. It's time they spend some time in re-designing the interiors with better quality plastic.

Hyundai i10 is good, but the seat ia a little uncomfortable for my wife, so immediately off the list.

Finally it was Chevy Beat. I testdrove Beat and was happy with the engine performance. I have read in many reviews that the rear is a bit cramped in Beat. Sop I asked the Chevy personnel to drive the car while I sit at the back. Man, it really is cramped. Gives you a feel of having no window at all.

The Chevy guy wanted me to testdrive Spark after I expressed that the rear seems cramped. I was not willing much, but decided to go for it, after all a testdrive won't matter, provided that thery are bringing the vehicle to my office.

I was not much impressed about the looks, but once I sat in thedriver's seat, I could feel the difference with the other cars I drove. It's like you have everything neatly designed and in place. The seat is comfortable, so is the steering position (it does not come with adjustable steering, and height adjustable seat though). I immediately loved it. Best thing is the pick-up of the engine. I did not expect it to be so good. One little push in the acceleretor and whooos it goes. I did some high speed cornering, and the car seemed to be stable (I don't expect much from a car of slightly tall-boy structure). Aero dynamics is really good for this vehicle. Finally bought it at July 7th 2011.

Droven till date:- 3000+ km

On road  in Bnaglore :- 4.10 (After a hefty discount of 60+ K from GM) [mind it, mine is the top end model having all that spark can provide] (Nice bargain, right :) ?)

Exterior Looks good. Looks preetier from back than the front view. View from front reminds me of Matiz, but from back it seems to be very small and cute. Nice backlights and boot design. Metal quality is not very good. You can expect scratches more foten than not. Don't bother you will be safe inside.

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort)

Features: Read GM brochure for this. There is so much I can't right it down here. (Don't expect steering mounted sterio control, it's a 4-5 lakh rupees' car). Only thing I can say is it does not matter whatever I pack in, there is always a placeholder for things. Bottles, Coke Cans, Papers, Documents, Packed food, Various small things that a women carry with her on a trip, and lot more everything has a place to keep in. It's too many pockets smartly designed in a small vehicle, so that you neither feel cramped nor feel uneasy reaching for things.

Space: Let me talk about the driver's seat first. It can be moved back anf forth according to your need. I am around 5 ft 7+ inch tall, and my wife is just below 5 ft. Both of us feel comfortable. Can't tell what a 6 ft guy have to say, but all I can state is that, if the seat is at the farthest point from the steering, I have to literally struggle to reach the pedals, and the person sitting behind me has nothing to complain. So that explains it all.

Comfort: I have never been in the rear seat, so won't be able to tell much about it. But while on a long drive (read 300+ km), my wife can change diapers of my 3 month old baby while the baby is lying on the back seat, and keep he stays lying on the seat happily while I am cruising at around 100 kmph. My mom and dad have grown old. According to them, the rear seat is very comfortable. They say that they don't face any difficulty while moving in/out of the vehicle (i.e, they don't need to crawl to get in/out fo the car), the seat height is properly chosen by GM engineers. It comes with fabric seat covers, so you would not want to lessen the beauty of the interior by putting extra seat cover on those.

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox Nothing to complain about the engine. You can slow down to <20 kmph near a speed breaker, while the car is at 5th gear, and still manage to recover the normal speed without shifting the gear (Saves fuel). Pick-up in low speed and appropriate gear is awesome. All you hahe to do is maintain the rmp within 1200-2200 to get a nice driving experince. Say you are in 3rd gear and have a speed of 25kmph, look at he rmp meter, if it is nearing 1800-2000, you better shift up to next gear , i.e, 4th gear. If you can maintain this throughout your drive, you are ought to have good fuel economy. Never ever go beyond 2500 in a new car or you will kill the engine.

In the first month I was getting around 7-9 kmpl, and was super unhappy with the mileage. After 1000 km it was around 11kmpl. Now that I have completed 3000 km, in peak city traffic I get around 12-13 kmpl and on highway it's amazing 16-18 kmpl. Not to talk about the speed on road. It can easily overtake almost 90% of the vehicles on a freeway. Heard about Swift being really swift? Try this one. It's like a small bombshell. You would not expect what you get in terms of pick-up.

Talking about gearbox, it';s not very smooth. Biggest problem is with engaging the reverse gear. You should be absolute dead stop before engaging the reverse gear, and that too does not engage properly 7/10 times. I was annoyed in the begginning with this issue, but now have become accustommed with the car. I know exactly how to do it so that it's a hit. Sometimes, if you cannot engage it after several tries, just roll the vehicle an inch forward, stop and engage the reverse gear. It is definitely going to work. You will get the clicky feeling on your left palm telling you that the gear is in position. Apart from this, I believe the overall gearbox transmission should be cleaner and smoother. The gear shaft literally travels a considerable distance from 1st to 5th.

Brake pedal is booster assisted. It's good other than the case that sometimes you will find the pedal is not accepting the pressure from your leg and car is not actually braking as much as you expect. That means you will feel like it's stuck. Actually the voltage across the brake booster is not enough. Don't panic, all you need to do is press the clutch and then press the brake, it will be smooth as butter. It took a while for me to understand the mechanism.

Ride Quality & Handling No complains. Very smooth and stable vehicle. I already talked about it. About handling, it has a sharp and crisp response to the driver's actions. Smaller size makes it easy to squeeze through traffic and get through sharp corners.

Final Words Just go for it.

Areas of improvement Everybody talks about bad service. I have no issues so far. I would recommend quality improvement in the metal and paint of the vehicle. Other than these I think it a great VFM.

Fuel Economy, Riding Comfort (Both Front & Rear), Features, Interior, AC,Boot space (Medium in comparison to other cars in this segment), Build Quality (Metal sheet)