SA Road Tests

Welcome

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 possibly applies to the models you can get at home.

*To read one of our archived road tests, just select from the alphabetical menu of manufacturers' names on the left. Hover your cursor over the manufacturer's name, then choose from the drop-down menu that appears.

*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


We drive the 2014 Chevrolet Spark LT; the brightest and safest one yet

Perky, funky, modern and safe

Posted on 29 May 2014

We have attended two Spark press launches and had a couple on review, but not much has altered since mid-2010 when they first came out; although there were small running changes in the meantime, minor detail improvements and a shift to local production. That not only helped shield the cars from the effects of wild currency fluctuations, but it added flexibility to local model detailing that would not have been possible otherwise.

Interestingly the little car grabbed limelight a few months ago by becoming the first supermini to win a coveted Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) Top Safety Pick award in the United States.

The institute’s latest and most stringent crash test, the small overlap, is designed to reveal inherent and previously untested weaknesses in a vehicle’s frontal structure. Twenty-five percent of the vehicle’s front corner on the driver’s side is impacted by a solid object at 64 km/h, mimicking a large proportion of often fatal road accidents. Spark was the only entrant out of eleven little cars to achieve a score of “Acceptable,” the second-highest level attainable. The others rated “Marginal” or “Poor”.

Coupled to its ‘Good’ ratings (the highest possible score) in all other IIHS tests, it won the 2014 Top Safety Pick Award, marking the first time that a small car has performed well enough to be accorded the honour. Says IIHS Senior Vice President for Vehicle Research Joe Nolan: “Small, lightweight vehicles have an inherent safety disadvantage. That’s why it’s even more important to choose one with the best occupant protection.”

Our test unit was the LT that adds a second pair of airbags, bigger (15”) alloy wheels, high-back seats, power lifts for the rear windows, two more speakers for the sound system, a backup alarm and a few decorative details, to the cheaper LS specification. The spare is still the 14” steel wheel that is standard on lesser models. Unfortunately we had an unplanned opportunity to fit the spare on our last day with the car after it picked up a puncture on the right rear.

The spare is perfectly adequate, being of similar width and diameter to the original, but unfortunately the jack supplied with the toolkit was less so. It’s a lightweight, scissors-style device with awkward lifting tools and marginal capacity. It took patience, grazed knuckles and a fair amount of upper body strength to operate. We would not be happy leaving vulnerable members of our household to struggle with it in isolated places. Our advice: buy a more substantial jack on your way home from the showroom.

Apart from that, it’s a very pleasant little car. It pulls well for a 1200 although it can be somewhat noisy when using the gears to get somewhere in a hurry.  Geared at about 3800 rpm for 120 km/h in top (fifth), there’s still some muscle in reserve for overtaking. Your default seating position is fairly high and upright with decent headroom and a good view outward. The driver’s chair boasts a neat and usable rotary height adjuster. Unfortunately the steering wheel adjusts up and down only, although repeater buttons for music and Bluetooth connectivity are provided on a pair of small switch pads to the right of the boss.

The parking brake is placed centrally between the seats while the gear lever is easy to reach and operate. Pedals are well spaced with enough room for left feet to find the floor easily. Air and music controls on the main panel are simple to understand and easy to use. Thankfully, the USB socket has been upgraded to the standard broad fitting in recent years and it recognises Apple-encoded iPods in addition to MP3 sticks. Said USB, and the auxiliary plug, are easy to find on the lower part of the central tower.
 
A medium-sized glove box, together with a selection of open trays and door bins, provides more than the usual amount of storage within the cabin. Both sun visors have vanity mirrors. Dash material is of hard plastic but fit and finish is good. For those in the back, headroom and foot space is better than on some bigger cars although knee room is a bit tight.

The 170-litre boot is about average for a small car, although it did accept two bin bags well filled with plants once the cargo cover had been unclipped and tossed onto the rear seat. Two rings and a pair of hooks help to secure loads while the seatbacks split 1/3:2/3 but don’t fold completely flat. Standard roof rails are useful for securing loads up to 50 kg.

Although not perfect, this top-of-the-range Spark LT is perky, funky, modern in its outlook and safer than at least ten competitors. Spring for a decent jack and you can be happy about setting your favourite family members loose in one.

Test car from GMSA press fleet

The numbers
Price: R148 300
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: 164 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 6,5 l/100 km
Tank: 35 litres
Warranty: 5 years/120 000 km; with roadside assistance
Servicing: 15 000 km or annual intervals
Optional service plan: 3 years/60 000 km



What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

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.

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