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 probably applies to the models you can get at home.

*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left.

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

General Motors SA revealed its hot new Chevrolet Spark recently. We flew down to Cape Town for a look.

This is a launch report. In other words, it's simply a new model announcement. The driving experience was limited to a short drive over a prepared course chosen to make the product look good. We can therefore not tell you what it will be like to live with over an extended period, how economical it is, or how reliable it will be. A very brief first impression is all we can give you until such time as we get an actual test unit for trial. Thank you for your patience.

Pics supplied

Not your regular urban runabout

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday July 28, 2010

Some small city cars are labelled cute and cuddly. General Motors’ latest Spark is anything but. It’s deliberately edgy and aggressive in style, made for the serious business of taking on the highly competitive ‘A’ segment and winning.

The design brief for General Motors’ global small car development centre at Incheon, South Korea, was to produce a vehicle offering best-in-segment standards of quality, performance and safety. It had also to meet the demands of critical buyers in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Australia and Asia.

On this subject, Tim Hendon, GMSA’s Chevrolet Brand Manager said, “Don’t write this off as ‘just another Korean car’. It’s a global car, developed with input from all GM’s design and engineering centres across the world. While it is being built in South Korea at present, future manufacturing plans include plants in India and the USA. Another thing you might like to bear in mind,” he quipped, “is that it is being built by committed and dedicated personnel who love their jobs and don’t walk out on strike every five minutes.”

A major South African demand was that it be not only competitively priced, but economical to run as well. Confirmed by a specially commissioned Kinsey Report on parts prices, the new Spark enters the market with the lowest-priced spares basket of all volume contenders in the ‘A’ segment, beating some long-amortised players in the process.

Enough prologue - this Chevrolet Spark is a completely new clean-sheet design related only by name to its Daewoo Matiz-based predecessor that will continue in South Africa rebadged as Spark Lite L and LS. The new car is 3 640 mm long on a wheelbase of 2 375 mm, 1 522 mm high and 1 597 mm wide. Front and rear tracks are 1 410 mm in front and 1 417 mm at the back. Suspension is by means of McPherson struts in front with a torsion beam system at the rear.

Two models are available, both powered by a 1 206 cc DOHC, 16-valve petrol engine developing 60 kW at 6 400 rpm and 108 Nm of torque at 4 800 rpm. Drive is to the front wheels via a five-speed manual transmission.

Interior space has been optimised to provide seating for five with 170 litres of luggage capacity, while the rear seat folds 60/40 to provide a versatile increase in load area. Additional storage is provided in the centre console with dual cup holders and a storage bin for small items such as cell phones and iPods. Both front doors have storage pockets incorporating bottle holders, while seatback pockets provide additional storage for rear seat passengers.

Specifications of the Spark L include colour coded bumpers, 14” steel wheels fitted with 155/70 R14 tyres, power steering, air conditioning, rear window demister, rear windscreen wiper, tinted windows all around, tinted front windscreen, remote fuel filler opener, intermittent windscreen wipers, RDS radio with front loading CD player and MP3 compatibility with auxiliary USB port, driver and front passenger frontal airbags, vehicle alarm/immobiliser system and remote central locking.

LS specification adds colour coded door handles, remote electric side mirrors (heated), power windows at the front, remote boot release, ABS anti-lock brakes, electronic brake force distribution and automatically locking doors.

Eighty-two percent of the steel used in its construction is either high strength or ultra high strength, producing not only an extremely rigid body, but offering excellent protection in the event of a collision. The engine mounting sub-frame is designed to disperse impact energy in the event of a head on collision, while the steering column features an extended impact protection zone to enhance driver protection.

High-strength steel is used in front and rear crash boxes that assist in minimising impact forces. The rear crash box plays a role in reducing whiplash injuries. The application of front end crash boxes has an economic benefit as well as passenger protection benefit in the event of a low speed crash, as damage will in many instances be limited to the replaceable crushable structure rather than transmitted through to the main body.

A ride and drive through Cape Town and surrounds showed the new Spark to be reasonably spacious with enough room in front for two large male journalists to co-exist without bumping shoulders and elbows, a willing engine with more than enough power to get the job done, an easy-shifting gearbox with nicely spaced ratios, decent handling and the ride quality of a bigger car – not your regular urban runabout at all.

The basics

Prices:

Spark L: R115 495, Spark LS: R125 495

Engine: 1 206 cc DOHC 16-valve four cylinder petrol

Power: 60 kW at 6 600 rpm

Torque: 108 Nm at 4 800 rpm

Emissions (claimed): 119 gm/km

Warranty:  5 years/120 000 km with roadside assistance throughout warranty period

Service plan: Available as option at time of purchase

Service intervals: Yearly or every 15 000 km

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.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to 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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