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So I'm no longer a spark owner here's why...


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So my Spark is no more. I had to go to NY from Fl for a family emergency and I figured I'd drive my sparky to save about 450 vs a same day plane ticket.

Since mile 7:

The ac has been replaced....twice

The engine has been replaced

Several trim pieces have been replaced

The ac still blows warm at idle

Headlights

The car needed prior to my trip:

Exhaust replace

Stairer valve

Upon getting to Ny my front and back washer pumps failed making it so I couldn't see on the roads

A funky rattle started in the dash

The engine started making a whooooooooooooo noise (mind you less than 1500 miles on the new engine)

No power I struggled to keep it above 55 mph on a flat

All of this with under 30k miles.

Idk if I got a lemon or what but the issues that presented themselves in ny were the last straw. I went to THREE different chevy dealers to work a deal on a new cruze and none of them would work with me to get my payments where they need to be. Needless to say I went to the ford garage and got a great deal on a new car there.

As an additional note, the spark does NOT hold value. The most chevy offered me was 7200 in trade. Ford offered me 8500.

I wish everyone the best, I won't be on as frequently since I no longer own the vehicle but I'll check back from time to time with all of you.

Thanks for being so awesome and helpful everyone!

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Damn. It had to be a total lemon. You couldn't file for any lemon laws? If I was to ever have serious issues with my car, I'd probably look into the new Mitsubishi Mirage. It's really quite unbelievable what you get with a base model Mirage for the same price as a base Spark.

Edited by Trancer07
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So far I have my doubts about this car, but so far been lucky. My washers quit, too, becouse some idiot at the dealer filled the washers with water that froze becouse it's winter. All it was is a blown fuse that protected the pump from burning out, I replaced it myself and they work fine now. Crossing my fingers I won't need a new engine every 30K miles or less, guess I'll find out as my miles go up, I have almost 23K now and no issues. I've had 7 tires replaced at no charge becouse they couldn't balance them, or out of round, but that's Goodears fault. I know this is my first and last GM product in years, I'll go back to Hyundai or Toyota when I'm done with this car, better products and customer service with those brands. Fyi theres some Hyundai parts on these cars, I know the axels are, lol.

Edited by austex04
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Damn. It had to be a total lemon. You couldn't file for any lemon laws? If I was to ever have serious issues with my car, I'd probably look into the new Mitsubishi Mirage. It's really quite unbelievable what you get with a base model Mirage for the same price as a base Spark.

Florida lemon laws aren't all that protective, and I couldn't afford to wait to go through that mess down here. So far I'm doing well with the focus, miss the city mpg of the spark though.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck.

All in all my Sparks been pretty good.

I have over 7000 miles. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Good luck to you.

Are you joining the "ford forum"?

Yea I'm on focus fanatics now same username. Pretty active community over there with lots of ideas for tweaking for me :)

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I remember when Ford first brought the Focus here, I knew someone who bought a 2000. It set a record of recalls, second place to the Chevrolet Citation, lol. Hopefully, like the Focus, the glitches on the Spark will be worked out, improving reliabilty. If it works good in Europe, don't change it for north America.

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I remember when Ford first brought the Focus here, I knew someone who bought a 2000. It set a record of recalls, second place to the Chevrolet Citation, lol. Hopefully, like the Focus, the glitches on the Spark will be worked out, improving reliabilty. If it works good in Europe, don't change it for north America.

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We had the same thing happen to our washer fluid, swapped the fuses and all was well.

Surprised you didnt get a Fiesta!

I worked a better deal out on the Focus than they wanted to work on the Fiesta. I saved about 1500 grabbing the focus. GL with your fuses!

I remember when Ford first brought the Focus here, I knew someone who bought a 2000. It set a record of recalls, second place to the Chevrolet Citation, lol. Hopefully, like the Focus, the glitches on the Spark will be worked out, improving reliabilty. If it works good in Europe, don't change it for north America.

Yea I was one of those poor guys with some of the first run Foci, it was horrible to say the least, however my friend had an 00 Focus and ran 200k + miles on it before sending a rod through the side of the block. His current 09 has 112k and is on original clutch and still "doesn't need plugs" all he's put into it are tires, brakes, wipers and gas....

Yeah the fungus was a joke. Now its become a very nice car. Just too fat for my tastes. It must be bigger then the old contour!

I can't tell you how shocked I was when the salesman said "So, how do you like the Focus?" I almost dropped a brick! I really didn't ever picture a Focus feeling as high end as this one does. Although there's an issue but that is between me and the dealership and is about to be worked out with a brand new one down here in Florida (they sold me one where they "didn't know there was a paint job" done to the vehicle)

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Hail or lot damage?

We're not sure at this point, I'm betting lot damage. The back panel has had work done to it and has a tape line on the vehicle and overspray on the weatherstripping. None of it was disclosed to me at the time of purchase, so were trying to work it out before we have to get attys and all that mess involved.

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I'm sorry but I don't believe this. The car is manufactured by Daewoo motors (now wholly owned by GM). The platform for it has been around since the late 1990's with only external modifications. You read all sorts of stories about the Aveo, also made by Daewoo, We had a 2004 model that we just traded in on the Spark that had no problems (other than one free warranty repair) in ten years. My wife crashed it twice and it still had no problems. My other car is a Fiat 500 and you see people posting all kinds of problems for that car too, none of which I have experienced in three years. I don't think its impossible to get a bad car, but with the way they are manufactured, I think it's unlikely. On the other hand I know people that can wreck up any brand of car in short order.

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I'm sorry but I don't believe this. The car is manufactured by Daewoo motors (now wholly owned by GM). The platform for it has been around since the late 1990's with only external modifications. You read all sorts of stories about the Aveo, also made by Daewoo, We had a 2004 model that we just traded in on the Spark that had no problems (other than one free warranty repair) in ten years. My wife crashed it twice and it still had no problems. My other car is a Fiat 500 and you see people posting all kinds of problems for that car too, none of which I have experienced in three years. I don't think its impossible to get a bad car, but with the way they are manufactured, I think it's unlikely. On the other hand I know people that can wreck up any brand of car in short order.

You speak out of turn, no wrecking going on here there are just several that have low build quality. Come back in 25,000 miles and let us know how good your Spark still is. Quality Control seems to be the real problem here and it most likely comes from very unhappy workers on the assembly line who believe they are being taken advantage of and pushed to work in situations that are not very good. GM Korea, KIA/Hyundai have been dealing with recurring strikes and other labor issues for the past couple of years, this very likely is showing up in our cars.

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You speak out of turn, no wrecking going on here there are just several that have low build quality. Come back in 25,000 miles and let us know how good your Spark still is. Quality Control seems to be the real problem here and it most likely comes from very unhappy workers on the assembly line who believe they are being taken advantage of and pushed to work in situations that are not very good. GM Korea, KIA/Hyundai have been dealing with recurring strikes and other labor issues for the past couple of years, this very likely is showing up in our cars.

We're entitled to our opinions, including the orginal poster. However since I am an engineer it simply does not add up. A red flag is raised immediately by seeing a New York - Florida trip. This is a city car with a 1.2 liter engine. Take some time and look at the videos they have on Youtube of how these factories work. Most of the critical work is performed by robots who have no work-life balance issues. I have a VW that is 17 years old common problems repeat over and over again for all owners of the same model because they are a direct consequence of the design. Uncommon problems are either sample defect (lemon) or user error.

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I never claimed the design is wrong, I claim that QC is a problem. But you are telling me that my car didn't burn a quart of oil over the last 600 to 1000 miles, so I therefore must be fine or that I must have caused it by having the oil changed at the intervals specified by the computer, and having the dealer do these changes so that the approved oils would be used.

And I must have also damaged the HVAC system, a sealed system that has no parts I can even tamper with. And I must have damaged the alignment to make it pull slightly left even though it was the very first thing I noticed when I left the dealership the day I picked it up.

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I'm sorry but I don't believe this. The car is manufactured by Daewoo motors (now wholly owned by GM). The platform for it has been around since the late 1990's with only external modifications. You read all sorts of stories about the Aveo, also made by Daewoo, We had a 2004 model that we just traded in on the Spark that had no problems (other than one free warranty repair) in ten years. My wife crashed it twice and it still had no problems. My other car is a Fiat 500 and you see people posting all kinds of problems for that car too, none of which I have experienced in three years. I don't think its impossible to get a bad car, but with the way they are manufactured, I think it's unlikely. On the other hand I know people that can wreck up any brand of car in short order.

I've maintained my vehicle at the dealership following all maintenance schedules and I have the car fax I can show you to verify my claims. In fact when I traded it with just under 30k the dealer was quite impressed with how clean and well maintained it had been. My previous car pushed well over the 150k mark, and the only reason I traded that is gas and lack of parts (discontinued was something I heard a lot of and decided it was time) and the gas was costing me more than a new car payment every month. That car was also maintained at the dealership. I've learned a lot over my years of driving and if I've learned anything it's that while dealerships are a bit more expensive there's never any issue with warranty repairs or a free loaner or building a relationship with a staff to where you can trust them to do business with.

Trust me when I tell you that I took dang good care of this vehicle. As soon as anything appeared awry it was in the dealership and replaced. There are some design flaws to this motor that so many are burning oil, having stalling issues, fouled plugs that when I talked with chevy to get them to replace the engine they told me that they had engineers working on it right now and were taking all of the engines that were doing what mine were to look at the design.

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Dgolden, I agree you are completely innocent. This is why I only buy new cars instead of pre-owned ones, to eliminate any and all mysteries. I would rather have a new Spark than a used Lexus for this reason. I know exactly what I am getting and so far have had excellent luck with the cars I have bought.

Edited by gorp
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