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Soon to be owner from MA


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Hello! Soon to be owner here from S.E. MA. Looking for a jalapeno green LS manual. Mainly as a commuter car for my girlfriend. I've got a mini fleet of nothing special that I drive/cruise night (93 Cavalier, 79 F100, 78 Mercury Cougar). Girlfriend's still keeping her rat-trappy 93 325i, but with 215K miles (and it looks it) along with a soon to be much longer commute, having a warranty and 40ish MPG will be nice. My parents each bought a Spark in the past year, an LS and LT1.

I just assume get an LS, cheaper and I can mod as I wish. Figure intake/exhaust/mild drop/short throw/plasti-dip.

I suppose I should hit the bank first to line up financing.. Never bought a car with a bank involved before, lol.

Anyway. Hi

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I dont mean to step on any toes or tell you how to spend your money but I will give you MY reasoning why I think the 2LT is the way to go. First thing is the fog lights. True fog lights can be added to the LS and 1Lt. Buy the kit, pull the bumper install the lights, take it to the dealer to have them programmed. It would have been fun for me 15 years ago...Roof racks. They can be added but it is a royal PITA. It has been done but I dont know of anybody here that has done it yet. Personally I love the wheels on the 2LT. They dont need to be "plasti dipped" to look good.The front and rear bumpers are different and look better on the 2LT IMHO plus a "lower body kit" to boot. Heated seats. I dont know if that really matters or not. I could take it or leave it. I love the interior of the 2LT. The seat material is so thick and robust. My advice is if you want to buy a 1LT to save a few bucks now and later add the features of a 2LT save yourself the time and money and just buy the 2LT. If you add up the cost of DIY sometimes it isnt such a good deal. I originally wanted to buy a cheaper model but as I added the cost of upgrading it it would have cost me much more doing it a piece at a time. Put a 1LT beside a 2LT and compare them before you buy. I am so glad we bought a 2Lt.

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I think the fog lights are around $350 dealer installed so you don't save a lot of money doing it yourself unless the programming step has been removed in more recent programming. They did this to the Sonic so they may have done this to the Spark. If so I want my $50 back! :rant2:

Edited by Greg_E
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If you plan on keeping it a long time, you may want to consider aftermarket rust proofing, every older car I see from up there has rust all over it. Check the a/c and see if it's good enough for you before buying, mine is but others may disagree. This is common among small entry cars.

Edited by austex04
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screw financing, lol. Just pay for ittt outright. haha. I Threw a fit when I got mine. I had my heart set on the LS base. But from everything I had read, I didn't know that it didn't have power locks. and when I realized that, I through a tantrum lol.. it was worth the extra 1500 to upgrade to the 1LT. It just wasnt worth the upgrade from 1LT to 2LT. I love my blue bullet :)

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We wanted the LS, but NEED cruise control. We road trip more often than anyone I know, so cruise was mandatory. We got the 1LT. Only regret I have is the fog lights. We get fog pretty often here in the Memphis area. But the 2LT is about 3K more than the 1LT, so we will just have the stealership put the lights in after we get the tint. No one has mentioned it yet, but the speakers in the Spark are absolutely horrible. A lot of people on here have, and we replaced ours about 5 days after we bought it.

As others have stated, we went with GM financing as well....... Good luck and let us know which model you get

And make sure you check the AC! We got lucky I guess; ours blows cold but many others have not only had issues with AC, but even more involved issues with GM getting it repaired

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Looks like the missus wants a 1LT.. More to come.

Whatever model you choose, is a matter of personal taste, but I kind of agree with Classing, for what these cars cost, I felt the 2LT was the way to go, as far as value received, and down the road, when trade-in time comes, the book is going to look a little more generously, upon the 2LT. But whatever you decide, you really can't go wrong.

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Whatever model you choose, is a matter of personal taste, but I kind of agree with Classing, for what these cars cost, I felt the 2LT was the way to go, as far as value received, and down the road, when trade-in time comes, the book is going to look a little more generously, upon the 2LT. But whatever you decide, you really can't go wrong.

And they all have the same motor, so they all get outstanding gas mileage :)

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Well, what an elusive car.

I can't find any 1LT green sticks closer than NJ. I'm not going that far for a car. Of course, no dealer really wants to travel that far to get me a car, either.

2LT? PA. Even further.

Looks like it might be one of the few remaining LS green sticks. Le sigh.

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The Spark is popular here, my dealer has almost every color in stock, several are manuals, two of them are 1LT, and there's two green ones there right now, one is a 2LT but automatic. I wonder why they're in short supply in the NE?

Edited by austex04
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Because they sell? lol. Not sure. Even the dealer where my car is coming from, guy has two left after selling 35+/- this year. Local dealer to me had zero in stock. Next closest had 1 yellow LS manual.

I would think having a bunch in stock means they are not popular.

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My dealer said they usually sell at least one per day, they do run out sometimes, but they get more in every other week. There's so many dealers around me, and in nearby cities that there's more competition. I think some of the reason why most dealers have limited stock is because the Spark isn't a very profitable car, they make more money off trucks and larger cars like Cruze, Malibu, and Impala.

Edited by austex04
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screw financing, lol. Just pay for ittt outright. haha. I Threw a fit when I got mine. I had my heart set on the LS base. But from everything I had read, I didn't know that it didn't have power locks. and when I realized that, I through a tantrum lol.. it was worth the extra 1500 to upgrade to the 1LT. It just wasnt worth the upgrade from 1LT to 2LT. I love my blue bullet :)

I really wanted to just pay for mine outright, but the deal I got on it was too good to pass up! I personally don't give a $#%T about power locks. The only thing I miss is cruise control, but I guess I never really used it that much on my previous cars to worry about it. The power windows are nice which I would easily choose over power locks (The rear hatch is power, though!). I can actually roll down my rear windows while driving!

Edited by Trancer07
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I really wanted to just pay for mine outright, but the deal I got on it was too good to pass up! I personally don't give a $#%T about power locks. The only thing I miss is cruise control, but I guess I never really used it that much on my previous cars to worry about it. The power windows are nice which I would easily choose over power locks (The rear hatch is power, though!). I can actually roll down my rear windows while driving!

I actually use the cruise control on my Focus all the time, and it is something I could not live without. It is the ONLY way I can get the car to slow down without the brakes. It's a 5 speed manual, but if you let off the gas or even shift down it will keep going. The only way to make it hold itself back on hills or even decelerate is to set the cruise control and keep pressing the decel button.

I remember that wasn't a problem for the Spark I drove.

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The yellow is a very cheerful color, and can be well seen. What people described when you coast seems to be the norm in most modern cars, the Cruze does it too, so does the Focus. Mine keeps rpm around 1k until I come to a stop, I just ignore it. I like the electric steering on the Spark more than the Cruze. I think the Cruze is a gas hog, only 30mpgs compared to 36+ in the Spark. I want my car back!

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