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Spark voted worst car to own


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I don't think they're nuts, just that there's so many other choices in that market for A segment cars, and many are better in more aspects than the Spark. Chevrolet has never focused on it's cars until recently, and it shows. If Hyundai offered the I10 here, I would have never bothered to even look at the Spark, having owned several GM vehicles that slowly fell apart in just a few years. It also seems the I10 is a much better car by what all the reviews say, this does not surprise me, Hyundai is well known for making larger strides in it's cars. If Hyundai brings it's I10 here, I will probably dump this car for another Hyundai in a flash, or find a good deer crossing. Thus far, I'm beginning to question the long term reliability of this car, and wonder if I made a big mistake. Also, Sparks are starting to pop up on used car lots, not a good sign.

Edited by austex04
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A lot of people are finding it too small, so they trade them back in. And if Kia had a nice small and cheap A segment here, I wouldn't have bought my Spark either, The Ford Fiesta was a really close buy too, if they didn't charge extra for the hatchback things might have been different.

I will admit, I did slam GM/Chevy pretty hard in my JD Powers survey, but I said I was fairly satisfied with the car itself. I still think most of our issues come down to GM not really wanting this car in the USA, and they don't seem to make the dealers live up to a good name like other car companies do. You guys would be shocked by what Mercedes forces their dealers to do.

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Another thing that should also be taken in account is the Spark sold here has more engine sound insulation and the suspension tuning is different than the euro Sparks. One of the biggest complaints in Europe about the Spark is engine noise and motorway ride, if GM gave Europe a American spec Spark, would they still feel the same way? I would think this car would ride awful with smaller, skinny tires.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm seeing Sparks showing up on used car lots. I looked on used sites, and saw over 20 of them within 400 miles. I saw one at the Toyota dealer near me as well. Many were personal owned, many with less than 6k miles, looking at the carfax reports. Did I buy a modern Chevette? I wonder if the a/c and auto transmission issues, and poor service at dealers are causing people to dump them for other brands?

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I'm seeing Sparks showing up on used car lots. I looked on used sites, and saw over 20 of them within 400 miles. I saw one at the Toyota dealer near me as well. Many were personal owned, many with less than 6k miles, looking at the carfax reports. Did I buy a modern Chevette? I wonder if the a/c and auto transmission issues, and poor service at dealers are causing people to dump them for other brands?

I haven't seen any on the local Chevy dealership lots, although I've seen some used ones listed in the NYC Metro area adverts, with asking prices, equaling the price of new ones. I also am not aware of any auto trans issues, and I have one. Outside of a few hiccups posted on this forum, up to this point, the cars have been performing as expected. As far as the a/c cold/cool issue, which I am also experiencing, I am waiting for something concrete to convince me that I really do indeed have a problem. Although the a/c works unconventionally, bottom line is, it does cool the car. When I am totally convinced it is defective, I will take it to the dealer for a repair. So, even though I am not a GM fan by any means, I am totally prepared to give Chevy a chance to rectify any problem that may arise. If and when they fail to make the car right, I will condemn them to holy hell, and trade the car in, but i am not there yet, it is to soon. So, up to this point, I am not prepared to panic, and I am still enjoying my Spark. As an aside, I have a Mazda dealer about a 1/4 mile from me, every morning, the cars are lined up, waiting to be pulled into the service bays, same with a VW dealer about 1/2 mile away. My observation is, no matter what you buy, you will have something that isn't working right, Although some may feel differently, I am not prepared up to this point, to condemn this car, although I reserve the right, down the road. :)

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I'm not ready to bail out myself, but concerned. Other than my speaker covers rattling, no issues related to the car yet. If the rest of the car starts to rattle, or fall apart, then I'll get ready to cut my losses, and buy another Hyundai or Toyota. Like I said in another post, I'm giving GM one last chance with this car. I still wonder why all those Sparks were traded in so soon, even before the first oil change. Is it paranoia in a world full of incompetents in suvs and aggressive rednecks in pickups, is the car too slow, or they're breaking down or what?

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I'm not ready to bail out myself, but concerned. Other than my speaker covers rattling, no issues related to the car yet. If the rest of the car starts to rattle, or fall apart, then I'll get ready to cut my losses, and buy another Hyundai or Toyota. Like I said in another post, I'm giving GM one last chance with this car. I still wonder why all those Sparks were traded in so soon, even before the first oil change. Is it paranoia in a world full of incompetents in suvs and aggressive rednecks in pickups, is the car too slow, or they're breaking down or what?

There was an article in the newspaper a few months back, claiming that dealers in certain parts of the country, were having difficulties in getting deliveries of new Sparks, partly because of dock strikes in the Asian countries, and that the dealers that have a few, are not helping each other out. They claim the demand being what it is, has literally driven some dealers to buy up new cars from dealers in other parts of the country, and sell them as used. What makes it believable to me, is the price of these "used" cars, they certainly don't appear to be priced by desperate dealers. I am within 20 minutes of five very large Chevrolet dealers, with large inventories of all the Chevy models in stock, you can't go into any of them and pick the particular Spark you want, regarding color, model, etc. You pick one out of the maybe three or four they have in stock, and settle on what you get, and pay the sticker price, there is no haggling on these cars. Or you can special order, and wait 3-5 months. You can see the trend on this forum, with new members settling on color, etc. Here is a link to some used Sparks, check it out, and see if it looks like a wholesale dumping of desperate sellers.

http://autos.yahoo.com/used-cars/overview?distance=50&location=&bodystyle=&modelyearlb=&modelyearub=&make=chevrolet&model=spark&askpricelb=&askpriceub=&deliverymileagelb=&deliverymileageub=&listingtype=used&keywords=

Again, I am not a GM fanboy, they have pissed me off on a few issues, but I am just trying to keep it real, when and if the time is right, I will scream just as loud as everyone else.

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According to what I know there was Geo Metro, then Chevy Metro then that transpired to Chevy Aveo which is now a Chevy Spark. If mine craps out early I'm going to VW TDI cars next. As for poor stealership service, I can agree with that at one place as I had to go back to stealership 5 times after I bought my car to sign paperwork they forgot about not each trip was to sign paper work as when I got up there they didn't know why they called me and had to go back another day.

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Sonic is the new name for the all new Aveo, which is a B segment car, so the Spark is technically GM's first A segment car sold here since the Metro/Suzuki Swift. Sonic is still called Aveo in other markets, GM wants America to forget the Aveo. I actually did haggle the price of my car, to 11500. It appears rentals are starting to flood the market, but the used prices are higher than a new car.

Edited by austex04
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My car is just fine in size and I did lacked the temperature gauge to let me know what the car is doing, but that is fine I have Craftsman Scan Tool that works. These cars coolant run at 195 degrees :play:

Shouldn't you find the car too small or that it lacks something BEFORE you purchase it? :confused:

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There was an article in the newspaper a few months back, claiming that dealers in certain parts of the country, were having difficulties in getting deliveries of new Sparks, partly because of dock strikes in the Asian countries, and that the dealers that have a few, are not helping each other out. They claim the demand being what it is, has literally driven some dealers to buy up new cars from dealers in other parts of the country, and sell them as used. What makes it believable to me, is the price of these "used" cars, they certainly don't appear to be priced by desperate dealers. I am within 20 minutes of five very large Chevrolet dealers, with large inventories of all the Chevy models in stock, you can't go into any of them and pick the particular Spark you want, regarding color, model, etc. You pick one out of the maybe three or four they have in stock, and settle on what you get, and pay the sticker price, there is no haggling on these cars. Or you can special order, and wait 3-5 months. You can see the trend on this forum, with new members settling on color, etc. Here is a link to some used Sparks, check it out, and see if it looks like a wholesale dumping of desperate sellers.

http://autos.yahoo.com/used-cars/overview?distance=50&location=&bodystyle=&modelyearlb=&modelyearub=&make=chevrolet&model=spark&askpricelb=&askpriceub=&deliverymileagelb=&deliverymileageub=&listingtype=used&keywords=

Again, I am not a GM fanboy, they have pissed me off on a few issues, but I am just trying to keep it real, when and if the time is right, I will scream just as loud as everyone else.

Holy crap! Those prices are insane! If they are asking that, it means people are paying it. I paid $13,900 OTD for my new manual 1LT. I guess I should be pleased with that. :)

I've has mine for 3 1/2 months and have about 6500 miles. I have the speaker rattle, MyLink has a mind of its own sometimes, and I think the A/C cool/cold (I honestly thought it was the compressor kicking on and off, but the car is still nice and cool). I truly cannot complain. It has been a great car so far and plan on running it unitl it dies (300K miles hopefully).

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  • 2 weeks later...

The dealership service isn't something you can exactly compare anything to. The only problem we had was that we didn't want to pay the extra for money for the warranty on the seat stuff. All paperwork was signed, the check was handed over, and we left. My service was excellent (we Joke that its because we paid cash lol). But the problems seem to have been fixed in later model sparks. Mine has None of the issues mentioned in these forums.

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The Spark is now in its 3rd year and 2nd mark here in the UK after a recent facelift, so we have probably had more time to workout all the niggles with the car. I think the main problem here is that our market is flooded with small affordable cars, there are at least a dozen cars I can think of that are in the same group as the Spark. The problem is people are wanting more and more from their cars and they are buying these expecting the same quality and spec as larger cars. I bought this car as a small runaround that was cheap, I wasnt expecting luxury or masses of spec when I bought it, so it fits my needs perfectly, Chevrolet dealers are bit of a rarety in UK but there is a large franchised dealer not too far away. Any problems I have with the car I will be visiting my friendly local garage as here in UK as long as any work done uses GM parts then the warranty is uneffected, no matter where the actual servicing is done.

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Widget, could not agree more. When I bought mine it was first for reliable cheap transportation in town and that's what I got. Even with the minor ac issue I still think I got more than I was expecting for the money. I even put my AC in recirculate mode and pulled the wire harness so its permanently in that mode until I can bring it in. Remember mine keeps going back and forth when activated, the resistance in the motor is broken so it has no idea when to stop so it just times out.

I will get it in at some point for my cold cool, high pitch compressor, and the recirculate door.

For now I'm enjoying my Spark and never bought it to mod, but now its addicting.

Edited by bluer101
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It's true, the US has a pathetic selection of nice little economy cars compared to overseas. But make no mistake, we got lucky with the Chevy Spark. It think it is one the best cars in it's class. I read a review where the Spark was compared to the Hyundai i10. The author liked the handling/ride of the Spark more, said it felt more solid and looked better. He said the engine was smoother, but down just a wee bit on power compared to the other two, but still feeling very peppy in comparison. Overall it seemed he liked the Spark the most, but scored it below the Hyundia i10 and it's Kia counterpart?

The USA engine is a special stroked version increasing the displacement (and torque) from 1200cc to 1249cc, directly addressing the wee bit less power.

I have bought more than a dozen new cars and owned quite a few used ones of all types. Minivans, small economy cars, midsize, sports cars, though I do prefer smaller cars. The Spark is an incredible value, has a lot of features for it's price range, and feels very solid and well made. So far it is holding up very well in the long term since it's release overseas more than 3 years ago.

Most importantly, it puts big smile on my face every time I drive it. I'm like a 18 year old kid looking for excuses to grab the keys and take it for a spin. By the way, I helped my 18 year old son buy one too! Not to mention the fuel consumption is much better than the EPA estimate. What's not to like about this cool and fun to drive little economy car? I didn't expect sports car performance or luxury sedan comfort when I bought it. That being said, it is still reasonably smooth and quiet as well as quite peppy around town.

Edited by gitsum
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  • 2 weeks later...

GM tracks the cars traded in and the Spark is way below the normal % at least here in the US . There were so many changes to the car for this market that's its unfair to even compare the 2 cars . They spent 3 years revamping the car for the states and it shows . I think it's the best value going .

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