SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
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*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


We drove the improved and less expensive, locally built 2012 Chevrolet Spark LS

A car to match young lifestyles

Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday September 22, 2012

The heading pretty much says it all, so can we go now? Just teasing you – GMSA started manufacturing the little 1200cc urban funabout at Struandale this past April, with first deliveries going out to dealers at the end of May.

Along with local production went a couple of specification upgrades; ABS brakes with EBD for the basic L that also gained intermittent wipers, while the sexier LS was given fog lights in front and height adjustment for the steering wheel. Somewhere along the way, it grew a full set of head restraints on the back seats as well – they weren’t there in 2010 when last we drove one. All the other specs and differences remain as they were back then.

All this is of absolutely no interest to any of you, who just want to know about the words “less expensive” included above, right? The bottom line is that the L’s price came down seven percent to R107 500 and that of LS dropped 9,7 percent to R116 500, making it R8995 cheaper than the one we drove in 2010. If that isn’t good news, we give up on you.

Keeping you updated, standard equipment on the L model includes 14 inch steel wheels fitted with 155/70 R14 tyres with full size spare, air conditioning, rear window demister and wiper, tinted windows all around including front screen, intermittent wipers, RDS radio and MP3-compatible CD player with auxiliary input and USB, driver and front passenger frontal airbags, ABS brakes with EBD, vehicle alarm/immobiliser system, remote central locking and roof rails.

LS gains colour coded door handles and roof spoiler, heated electric side mirrors, 14 inch alloy wheels fitted with 155/70 R14 tyres, power windows at the front, height adjustable steering column, remote boot release, four-speaker sound system, steering wheel mounted remote sound controls, automatically locking doors and front fog lamps. Those wanting something extra can order a R3000 sports kit with 15"wheels, sporty bumpers front and rear and a chromed tailpipe.

On the outside, no attempt was made to pitch this car as “cute.” It’s deliberately funky, chunky and aimed at twenty-to-thirties looking for a car to match their lifestyles. On the inside, it is practical with loads of people-space, well placed and easy-to-use controls and lots of storage. It was designed with curves rather than parentally-approved straight lines and happily mixes analogue instrumentation with digital. Coming later this year is a music section that does away with that boring old CD player in favour of MyLink. This turns the car into an app by integrating smartphone and stored media with the radio, giving access to Pandora, Stitcher and other content.

The engine performs very well for a 1200 with loads of pulling power in all gears and excellent roll-on acceleration in fifth. As we said back then, it could almost use a sixth ratio, but please don’t tell those engineers at GM, because they will probably make it ‘way too long-legged and spoil everything.

Those with children and a corresponding anxiety about hatchbacks can relax. This one won’t crumple like an empty juice carton if whacked in the rear. High strength steels and a strong rear crash cage that dissipates forces outward and reduces whiplash effects, help keep everyone safe. Naturally, the rest of Spark’s body is built with passenger- and pedestrian safety in mind too. Even the roof is four times as strong as the law requires.

Less expensive, better equipped and fun to drive, this car is far too joyful for Generations X-to-Zee to hog for themselves. We think we’ll have one too.

The numbers
Price: R116 500
Engine: 1206 cc, DOHC, 16-valve, four-cylinder
Power: 60 kW at 6400 rpm
Torque: 108 Nm at 4800 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 13,4 seconds
Maximum speed: 163 km/h
Average fuel consumption: 7,0 l/100 km
Tank: 35 litres
Warranty: 5 years/120 000 km; with roadside assistance
Servicing is at 15 000 km- or yearly intervals with service plan available as an add-on option.

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police. Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

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