2012/2013 Chevrolet Spark

Chevrolet Spark 2012 likes to pretend that the Spark is the car you chose. The first hint of its design came as a two-door concept version called Beat, at the 2007 New York auto show. The Beat appeared as part of a trio of concepts, alongside a micro-crossover called Trax and a retro minivan, Groove.


Power on the European Spark is provided by either a 1.0-litre or 1.2-litre dual overhead cam, 16-valve four-cylinder engine with multi-port fuel injection. The likely engine in the North American version will be the 1.2, though its 80 horsepower and 82 lb.-ft. of torque may be deemed too low for North American tastes. Both engines are mated to a standard five-speed manual, though an automatic will likely be offered optionally in North America.
Acceleration is leisurely, with Spark making the run to 100 km/h in a reported 12.7 seconds, passing from 80 to 120 km/h in 26.6 seconds, and a top speed of 164 km/h. But as you’d expect, the Spark onus is on fuel economy, with ratings on the Euro cycles of 6.6 litres per 100 km in the city and 4.1 on the highway and CO2 emissions of just 118 grams per km.


2012 Spark will come standard with curtain air bags driver, passenger and side, while other security measures with the models of the US in 2012, not even known. European spark got the 4-star 5-star crash rating from the European new car assessment program, but the US version, most likely to carry out some changes to the plan, how many euros only work as a prospect.

MT asked GM DAT design chief Taewan Kim whether there ever really was a question of ‘the customers choosing’ which car would make it. He snorted an ‘of course not’ grin. It would have been commercial suicide to have let the Trax or Groove win, because the sub-subcompact segment globally is utterly dominated by the hatchback body style.

So in technology and basic architecture, the Spark is your vanilla hatchback. But its execution and design are pretty interesting, and it’s certainly a competent player against price-matched opposition from anywhere around the world.

Don’t imagine it’s an entrant in the mushrooming supermini class, and specifically don’t confuse it for a Ford Fiesta rival. Oh no, it’s a lot smaller, lighter, and cheaper than that. Chevy’s first serious rival to the Fiesta — and the Fit and Yaris — will be the next-generation Aveo5, due late in 2012.

At just 143.3 inches long in global trim (add an inch and a half for U.S.-spec bumpers) and comfortably under 1950 pounds, this all-new platform had to be carefully engineered to provide the right European NCAP safety result. And yet it isn’t impractically small: Four six-foot Americans can fit painlessly between its 97.6-inch wheelbase.

Designer Taewan Kim wanted the Spark to avoid the cuddly character of most Asian microcars, and put a note of aggression into the design. To make it look bigger than it is, he gave the Spark a strong, upright nose with tall headlamps and creased bone lines on the outer edges of the hood leading the eye back to the A-pillars. This design works well when viewed from any frontal angle, but if you see it from a slightly rear-profile point of view, the Spark looks like it’s driven into a wall.

In other design news, the side view is dominated by big wheelhousings and an additional shoulder at the rear. The cockpit narrows over the rear wheels, enabled by the placement of the door locks high in the door frames behind the side glass. Painted black in all models, the handles are effectively hidden, leaving the Spark’s flanks looking clean.

The Interior

The Engine