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So, after one year later, around 16,000 miles I have now turned a tank to tank average (not including the first tank from the dealer) of 39.9 miles to the gallon, and did it in 399.67 gallons of fuel. The stock tires are still is really good shape despite the constant slight pulling to the left that no dealer can or will find. The only other nagging issues are the HVAC and a slight vibration at certain wheel speeds that is present with both stock wheels and snows on steel wheels. No wind noises have appeared, but lots of little chips in the paint. So far still pretty happy with this car, just wish the manufacturer was a little more attentive to some of the issues.

http://www.fuelly.com/driver/greg999/spark

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Im getting awesome mileage ! the AVG on the dash says 26.6 since i filled up and wanted a better gauge... but i havent filled up in almost 2 weeks ! and ive been driving it around like any other week.

love this car... LOVE IT... i too wish GM customer service was much better for us spark owners... i keep saying CS would be much better if we were all driving camaros and covettes. but they say apples and oranges LOL !

other than the A/C and customer service... this little car is awesome

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So, after one year later, around 16,000 miles I have now turned a tank to tank average (not including the first tank from the dealer) of 39.9 miles to the gallon, and did it in 399.67 gallons of fuel. The stock tires are still is really good shape despite the constant slight pulling to the left that no dealer can or will find. The only other nagging issues are the HVAC and a slight vibration at certain wheel speeds that is present with both stock wheels and snows on steel wheels. No wind noises have appeared, but lots of little chips in the paint. So far still pretty happy with this car, just wish the manufacturer was a little more attentive to some of the issues.

http://www.fuelly.com/driver/greg999/spark

Slight pull to the left? Mine has that too. I've taken it in about 4 times for the allignment pulling to the left and the last two times they pretty much tell me im crazy. That the allignment is "dead on" factory specifications. And this last go around they made the comment that someetimes with the small cars the occupant weight can cause tthe car to pull one way or the other. Yes, I beleive this is possible, but I weigh 225. I highly doubt 225 paound can case this. Maybe 300 or more can. I notice the way i hold the steering wheel it is always slanted to the right to correct for the drift.

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Well, I'm 5 months and 12k miles into ownership. So far, had all four tires replaced twice under warranty, and the annoying speaker cover fixed twice. I had to take my car into another dealer after five repair attempts, now my car is fixed. This set of tires don't vibrate at speed, and the rattle is finally gone for good, thanks to the dealer 30 miles away, in another city. To those with the left pull issues, try rotating the tires and see if it goes away. I've had a 350 pound passenger, and my car didn't pull to the right, just sat a little lower on that side. Tires are covered 100% during the first year or 12k miles, fyi. At last I got a good set this time, and I'm enjoying driving the car more since I bought it. Ps: when I was changing my oil, I saw the drive axels were Hyundai parts, they have the tags on them with part numbers, LOL.

Edited by austex04
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I'm significantly lighter so I know it isn't a weight issue, also does it when I have a passenger to balance out the car. Pulls with stock tires or snows, rotated, etc. The rear axle assembly on mine is just barely within tolerance and therefor not something they will fix as it technically passes. Only fix is to replace the entire rear axle assembly and hope the replacement is correct. Someday I may need to do this, but it is around $300 and I'd really need a lift to hold the body up safely. Maybe if the service manual ever gets printed I can see what is involved, maybe there is a shim point that I can use to change the nearly out of spec. toe on the rear end.

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We have almost 6k miles and everything is fine other than the A/C issue ( will have the update during the next oil change) and one of the kicker speakers (drivers side front) took a crap already. Other than that we are still loving ours. Had the first oil change if memory serves me correctly around 2k miles. Oil was dirty which was to be expected because of break in but now with 6k it is pretty clean. So far so good!

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I year in early Sept. I have 19800 miles. I just had the 2nd oil change done this week. Only issue I had was the A/C which is fixed. I too, get a very light shimmy when I accelerate at times, but nothing that concerns me at this point. I am totally pleased with this car. I an averaging 36.7 mpg over the last year.

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The rear axle is essentially a solid unit so there are no toe in or other adjustments. The tolerance I'll have to look up but one side of mine has the toe right on the maximum limit and this causes the thrust angle to be close to the limit. Sometimes you can take the assembly apart and add shims to fix issues like this, sometimes it takes a frame machine to bend it where it needs to be. In our case, the rear axle assembly is cheap enough that bending on a frame machine would be more expensive than replacing the assembly. Sooner or later I will order that assembly and change it since the dealer won't warranty it since it is within the specifications (barely).

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Put it on an alignment machine which generally costs money. Spoke to a guy that owns a local family repair business, nice guy, might be bringing cars to them from now on. He looked up some things on the HVAC for me because we were talking about it while the tech was doing my annual safety inspection, he was surprised by how little refrigerant was specified for the car and suggested maybe adding a little of the correct type to see what happens. Only thing is that it might be some newer kind of R134 which is carbon based, need to talk to my dad about that and maybe see what happens.

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I am enjoying mine at 3K, after 8 mos. ownership, no problems, with the exception of the typical a/c issues. Just using it around town, back and forth to the local stores, etc. Averaging 32 mpg. The land yachts were appealing when I was rolling big time on the roads, now the Spark is my main squeeze. Hoping this honeymoon will last. :wub:

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About 1 year and 1 day after I started on my first paid tank of fuel, I'm now at a tank to tank average of 40.0 mpg. Considering the hills I need to go up this is pretty good, the hill that I work on really kills things fast, it would be a lot higher if I worked in the more flat areas.

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