Chevy hopes Spark ignites minicar sales
 

GM quietly rolls out small ride geared to young, urban market

Melissa Burden - DETROITNEWS - July 25, 2012

Chevrolet's 2013 Spark is quietly arriving on dealer lots in select U.S. markets, as General Motors Co. aims to win young drivers and city dwellers with the minicar's cute styling and a starting price below $13,000.

The tiny hatchback — the smallest Chevy sold in the U.S. — is now rolling out in 18 markets, including Metro Detroit. Chevy Sparks in colors such as Techno Pink and Jalapeno began showing up on dealer lots locally this week. They will be available nationally by the end of the year.

Romaine DeVaul, 30, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is believed to have purchased the first Spark in the United States. He took delivery last week from Maroone Chevrolet in Fort Lauderdale.

DeVaul traded his decade-old V-8 Cadillac SLS for keys to a Spark 1LT in Salsa. It cost about $14,500, plus taxes and fees.

"My other car was a V-8 gas guzzler so … I wanted something more fuel efficient," he said in a phone interview Tuesday...

Chevy and GM hope to pique the interest of more millennials like DeVaul. One recent survey found young people would rather keep their smartphones and Internet over owning a car.

GM and Chevy are working on that, hoping to engage the estimated 80 million 16- to 30-year-olds in the U.S. into connecting with the Chevrolet brand... [Read More]

Re: Chevy hopes Spark ignites minicar sales
 

for that kind of money I can get a hell of a used LaCrosse with a V6.. lots more car for the money.

Re: Chevy hopes Spark ignites minicar sales
 

Can't believe in this day and age they named a plain old gas car the "Spark". They should have saved that for a little EV.

Re: Chevy hopes Spark ignites minicar sales
 

The Spark hit the local showrooms here on LI a little over a week ago. The dealer about two miles down the road has six of them, and none appear to have sold yet.

A quick check over the entire island shows mostly automatics with four 2LT Sparks with the five speed stick within 100 miles of here. By my fuzzy math, it appears that 90% of the cars here are automatics and the rest are manual. The automatic Spark is rated at 28/37 vs 32/38 with the 5MT. The Spark 2LT with 5MT cars around here are stickering at $15,795, which puts them in Accent/Rio territory, although the Spark 2LT has heated pleather seating and "fog lights". Fog lights in a city car? When was the last time you drove in an urban setting with lighting so poor and fog so bad that you needed auxilliary lighting?

The base LS with a stick is under $13k list. Given a little time for cash to accumulate on the hood, it could pose an interesting proposition for a very low transaction cost and better EPA numbers than the competing Fiat 500 (at 30/38). It's definitely not geared to run over 50mph, but for those who don't subscribe to the "I need to drive 70 or I will get run off the road" myth, it could offer impressive FE with disciplined driving as a daily commuter capsule.

Not sure if the 1.2 uses a timing belt instead of a chain, considering that the 1.4 has a chain, the 1.8 has a belt. But if by some stroke of luck it uses a chain, it could also have a low TCO over the very long haul.

Re: Chevy hopes Spark ignites minicar sales
 

Its counterintuitive, but without a spark an ICE car (except diesels) would not work.

In a gas car you want a spark, in an EV, I don't think a spark would be desirable!

Re: Chevy hopes Spark ignites minicar sales
 

There you go, making too much sense. ;)

Re: Chevy hopes Spark ignites minicar sales
 

The crowded subcompact market is very competiitive. The Nissan Versa, Honda Fit, and Hyundai Elantra Touring gives more space, the Hyundai Accent is cheaper (with the Tata Motor Nano being even cheaper still), the Yaris/Prius c gets better MPGs, and the Minicooper will likely leave the Spark in the dust.

Re: Chevy hopes Spark ignites minicar sales
 

You are thinking like and engineer and not like a marketing person. Most people probably don't even know what a spark plug is. Spark as an electric car would have huge marketing potention. Spark-ing a revolution . . .

Re: Chevy hopes Spark ignites minicar sales
 

Well yeah, thats what marketing people do. Lie, confuse, misuse facts, or stretch the truth in order to make a sale! Accuracy? who needs that!

Re: Chevy hopes Spark ignites minicar sales
 

there is a Spark EV in the works so maybe it's a good name (some FUD for now)