I was looking to sell my Maruti 800 DX 5 speed model and buy a new car. Got a lot of advice from friends. Read a lot of magazines like Over drive, auto india, BS motoring etc, read alot of reviews from mouthshut, team-bhp.com etc. I wanted to get a hands on feel of all the hatch backs available and I went on for test drives on many cars.
It was a Saturday morning and the place vijai motors, Bangalore located in Whitefield road. They are one of the Chevrolet dealers in town. They were very good in briefing about the product and revealing finance options, discounts, offers etc. Personally I was impressed. Then came the test drive part.
I got a Chevy spark LS car for test drive. The car comes with creature comforts like front power windows, both driver/codriver side ORVMS that are internally adjustable(good mirrors compared to many other cars in competition, provided very good view). Ok the main part.
Started the engine. Again started the engine and heard a strange noise. GODI had re cranked the engine which was already running. I am not exaggerating here. The engine was so quiet that I couldnt feel its running. Then drove the car upto 90kmph speed(luckily there was less traffic on that day). clutch was smooth and light, power steering was so light and nice better than Wagon R. Zero vibrations. Suspension was good and I could feel the solid build quality of the car. No rattling no niggles from doors or dashboard which I can easily hear in my friend’s brand new Wagon R, my maruti 800 needless to say. Power delivery was so smooth, mid range torque is great, excellent for city driving. The center mounted speedo meter and instrument console was different, personally I liked it. The car comes with a taller gear ratio that is better than the maruti wagonr or hyundai santro. So it would be nice on long drives too for cruising around 90 kmph speeds. I personally dont have any idea about the mileage. But being a 993 cc engine with Electronic Sequential Fuel injection(SFI) should give the best mileage among cars in this segment. Note that this engine has 2 valves per cylinder unlike 4 valves per cylinder engine of WagonR. 2 valves per cylinder engine is a little older design compared to 4 valves but due to lesser moving parts engine is more smoother.
SFI system directly injects the fuel into the cylinder unlike the MPFI(Multi Point Fuel Injection) which injects into the cylinder inlet banks. So I have heard that SFI system is much better than MPFI resulting in better fuel efficiency and power output. The gear shift was smooth and precise. The only thing was the long throws required for gear shift. However personally I am fine with it.
A/C was so powerful and one of the best. The car doesnt feel much of power shortage due to A/C. It just pulls of effortlessly. The A/C blower however creates some noise. since the engine is almost noiseless you tend to feel that the blower makes a lot of sound.
The front seats(driver and co driver seats) are placed at a low height. This I felt was not a good design. You can see that there would be almost close to a feet of head room left. Short drivers might need a small pillow to be placed on the driving seat to get a WagonR kind of road visibility.
Rear seats can seat 2 well built adults or 3 lean adults comfortably. Legroom is quiet good for this segment car.
The boot space is very less, but more than an alto’s boot space. Its slightly less than WagonR or santro’s boot space.
Suspension is excellent, I mean really excellent. Looks is subjective. However its a head turner. I personally loved the design, the headlights and tail lamps. Overall looks like a Daewoo Matiz, but ladies and gentlemen this is completely different. Matiz came with a 3 cylinder engine. this one is a 4 cylinder engine and GM guys have completely redesigned a nice car out of an already gem of a car in Matiz. This is good art work from GM.
The seats however are not upto the mark. Front seats lack thigh support and feel like pure flat surface. You dont get the hugging feeling from the seats. Well I dont know how to describe this. Rear seats are almost similar to alto seats. Legroom is decent. the back support offered by the rear seats is not upto the mark. The seats except the Spark LT variant dont have head support or atleast support till neck level and hence on long trips atleast 2+hrs trips when head support is really required when people tend to sleep or atleast short doze offs, u need this. Seats are a minor let down with spark. I hope since this car is totally designed as a zippy city car GM has ignored these kind of things.
The car comes with(Spark LS)
Power Steering
Power windows for the front windows
Tubeless tyres(Apollo Acclere)
Provision for 2DIN stereo
Personally I liked the car and with a discount of around 50, 000 Rs. ITS A STEAL.
I would recommend this car for people who are planning to buy the kind of Santros or WagonRs or Estilos or even an Alto which is highly over priced for a 3 cylinder engine.
Last but not the least. I found this link posted by a team-bhp member - story of his survival after crashing his car at 100+ kmph. You can go through the link and the pictures taken by his friend, of the damaged car. I feel that this car is built with safety in mind.
https://team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/43695-my-spark-safer-bet.html