Chevy Spark is no firecracker (pictures)
The Spark mini car from Chevy bears a very low price and boasts high fuel economy, but its driving dynamics suffer from cost-cutting engineering.
Wayne Cunningham
Wayne Cunningham reviews cars and writes about automotive technology for CNET's Roadshow. Prior to the automotive beat, he covered spyware, Web building technologies, and computer hardware. He began covering technology and the Web in 1994 as an editor of The Net magazine.
Chevy adds to its model lineup at the small end with the Spark, a new model built in Korea.
The Spark features uncommon styling around a practical cabin design.
Although only 1.25 liters, the Spark's engine still has four cylinders. Its output of 84 horsepower is decidedly on the low side.
At slightly over 12 feet long, the Spark is easy to park.
The suspension makes for a rough ride in the Spark.
With the rear seats up there is room for maybe two grocery bags.
To fold the rear seats down, you first lift up the seat bottom.
Folding down the rear seats opens up much more cargo room.
This top-trim model comes with two-tone, manually adjustable seats.
Chevy put a divider in the rear bench preventing more than two people from sitting back here. The car would certainly struggle with the weight of five passengers.
1LT and 2LT trim levels come standard with the center 7-inch touch screen.
The electric power steering becomes very obvious when you turn the wheel while stopped.
Chevy says this instrument cluster design was inspired by gauges on motorcycles.
A five-speed manual transmission is standard, while a four-speed automatic is available.
This colorful top-level menu is like nothing else found in Chevy's lineup.
The Smartphone Link menu item leads to this screen, with three apps represented. Chevy will no doubt add more apps in the future.
The BringGo navigation app runs on a smartphone, and displays its maps on the touch screen.
BringGo has all the features you would expect from a factory-installed navigation system.
Traffic data comes in through the connected smartphone's data plan.
Our biggest gripe about the Bluetooth system is that you can't connect a device to make calls and stream music at the same time.
The music library screen catalogs tracks by artist and album, whether reading from an iPhone, iPod, or USB drive.
Album art shows up on the play screen.
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