2013 Chevrolet Spark 2LT review

The Chevy Spark starts at $12,170. This one costs slightly more than that.

Underneath the bright colors, youthful pretension and eager-mouse styling of the 2013 Chevrolet Spark is a decent compact car that is as far ahead of the Aveo it replaced as the Samsung Galaxy S4 is to your uncle's Motorola StarTAC. 

Some nasty small-car habits remain: floor the throttle all the way to the bottom and it sounds exactly like a Motel 6 hair dryer. Likewise, the suspension is very jarring and crashes over bumps. But steering is accurate; sufficiently light and just plain nice to helm. The CVT transmission pairs well to this car. I drove the Spark to the glitzy glamour of San Diego, and found out that 84 hp will hold 80 mph all day with superb gas mileage of 30.1 mpg and range not unlike a much larger car. 

Inside, it is completely awash in plastic, but the Spark revels in its use of materials, more a celebration of the plastic fantastic than anything else. Every panel is solid and smooth and quality-feeling, even the splash of shiny body-colored plastic. Are we really saying this about a small Chevrolet? Yes, it's a brave new world out there, where the Korean-designed Spark can actually impress through its use of plastics. 

The front seat won't fold forward enough for every single thing I needed to do with this car, which, as one of the target group of self-absorbed millennials, I found irritating: what happens if you need to move a 47-inch TV that your cousin is giving to you because she decided to move back to China? The TV wouldn't fit vertically, either, which is strange considering its skybox height. It doesn't need to be this tall. It really doesn't. But they have to sell this in Europe, for example. And Europeans are tall. Aren't they?

Ooh! Ahh!

Much has been ballyhooed of the Spark's motorcycle-inspired gauge design, and perhaps someday the Nissan Juke's motorcycle-inspired center console can be retrofitted in place for the ultimate in motorcycle-inspired frippery. Indeed, the gauges are very simple. The speedometer is close enough to your face that you feel like you can reach out and rearrange the needle. But the digital screen to the left is obscenely cluttered and confusing. MyLink is the best feature in the Spark: colorful, responsive, quick, managing to resemble a Microsoft Zune player from 2005, which should surely play well with the ironic crowd. Yeah, iPods are too mainstream for me, man. 

WEST COAST EDITOR MARK VAUGHN: I really wanted to love this 2013 Chevrolet Spark 2LT. I have a bizarre belief that small cars are all fun to drive. I like the packaging -- it is upright and roomy inside. You get in through four big doors that easily accommodate any average-man 95 and more. You can easily and comfortably fit four full-sized American adults in this car -- five less comfortably -- and still have room for their soft-sided luggage in the back (as long as there isn't more than 11.4-cubic feet of it). I like the styling; it's efficient but still has some noticeably suave lines, especially the outer edges up and over the body.

It is a much better small-car-solution than the Scion iQ.

But when I got behind the wheel and drove the Spark, I was disappointed. It leans, it flops, it doesn't track as true as I would have liked. It was, as they say on the internet, all over the place. I did not find the electric power steering as precise as Blake found it, despite its relatively semi-quick ratio of 16:1. The MacPherson strut front and “compound crank” rear suspension doesn't so much absorb bumps as desperately tries to negotiate with them for survival. And the acceleration really needs to be given a severe talking to. Nothing -- certainly not the shifter -- felt like it was connected firmly to anything else. (Unlike Blake, I got the five-speed manual transmission.) It felt, in a word, cheap. If I could add another word I'd say flimsy. I've driven small cars in Europe and Japan that were fun. These things can be engineered a little tighter and not have to sacrifice handling to be cheap. I remember driving a Nissan Micra years ago and telling Nissan staff that they should bring it in to the U. S. market immediately. Nissan didn't. GM did bring in the Spark.

At $18,035, the Spark is admittingly a tougher sell.

Then you look at that the most basic Spark's base price - $12,170 and you see just how cheap it is. What is this, 1972? OK, for that base price people are willing to make huge sacrifices in just about every department. If they buy this car they will. The Spark was made for Asia and Europe, designed by GM's small car subsidiary in Korea which itself is made up of parts of the former Daewoo. There are many markets around the world where this would be a stylish and practical entry. I don't know if the United States is quite ready to embrace it, though. For the price of a moderately equipped Spark, say starting at more than $14,000 or so, you could buy a Fiat 500, Ford Fiesta/Mazda 2, Hyundai Accent/Kia Rio, Nissan Versa or Toyota Yaris (don't buy a smart or a Scion iQ). All of those drive better than the Spark, all but the Mazda 2 and iQ have outsold it, but none of them except the Versa sedan start at less than $13k.

I am looking forward to getting into a Spark EV. The battery pack shifts the balance of the car rearward and promises great things, assuming you can go around a corner fast enough to feel where the center of gravity is.

I have some idea about the demands of the global auto market and how GM and so many other carmakers always feel they have to contract with a small Asian carmaker in order to make a “great small car,” but I can't get behind the plan GM has sewn up with the former Daewoo. Cars like this are great for penetrating Third World markets where the vehicles in question are replacing more agrarian modes of transport that must be fed hay. But I have to believe we in the U.S. want more.

2013 Chevrolet Spark 2LT

Base Price: $18,035

As-Tested Price: $18,035

Drivetrain: 1.2-liter I4; FWD, continuously variable transmission

Output: 84 hp @ 6,400 rpm, 83 lb-ft @ 4,200 rpm

Curb Weight: 2,368 lb

Fuel Economy (EPA City/Highway/Combined): 32/38/31 mpg

AW Observed Fuel Economy: 30.1 mpg

Options: None