2013 Chevrolet Spark

[kc78]

I'm looking to buy a small, inexpensive car, with good gas mileage to just get around town in and back and forth to work. I'm spending far too much in gas on my large SUV with as far as I drive every day. I was looking at a 2013 Chevrolet Spark but don't know much about them. It drives good enough and seems to get good gas mileage. Does anyone know anything about how reliable these cars are?

 

[AdNole]

I am wondering if anyone else is like me and has never heard of a Chevy Spark until this thread appeared.

 

[seminole97]

If my biggest concern was reliability I'm not sure I'd buy a first year, first gen car that GM outsourced to Daewoo.
If my biggest concern was reliability, I'd buy a Honda. Have a friend that graduated from Kettering (GM's university), worked most of her life for GM as an engineer with a small stint at Honda. She told me that on quality control in manufacturing at Honda is still leagues ahead of GM (with regard to what is considered an acceptable failure rate).

 

[jaxnole77]

My Hyundai Elantra gets 35+ mpg all the time. True most of my driving is on the expressway to and from work, but this is both my 2013 and 2015 Elantras over almost 3 years worth of driving. I bought my daughter the same model (older) and she gets similar performance, as does my stepson with his 2013. Furthermore, their warranty is about as good as it gets.

 

[SoddyNole]

I am wondering if anyone else is like me and has never heard of a Chevy Spark until this thread appeared.

Never heard of it as well.

 

[cfbfan23]

I drive a Dodge Stratus!!

 

[mbb07c]

Had it as a rental car for a week , do not buy. I highly recommend a Honda as a previous poster said, they are very reliable. The spark just felt cheaply put together inside. Can't go wrong with a civic or cr-z (cool looking hybrid).

 

[BelemNole]

You trying to keep the price around $10k?
You can still get more bang for your buck with a new car these days. You could probably pick up a 2015 Mazda3 for $15k.

 

[fsuksig]

Blog millionaire...buying used?

 

[Bartdog]

You trying to keep the price around $10k?
You can still get more bang for your buck with a new car these days. You could probably pick up a 2015 Mazda3 for $15k.

With skyactive, should get ~~ 40 mph

 

[MR . B]

I needed a car to tow behind my motorhome and looked at the Spark. It seemed to be cheaply made. I ended up getting a used 2014 Ford Focus hatchback for $12,900. It drives much better and gets 37mpg on the highway running 80mph.

 

[LBoogie28]

Had it as a rental car for a week , do not buy. I highly recommend a Honda as a previous poster said, they are very reliable. The spark just felt cheaply put together inside. Can't go wrong with a civic or cr-z (cool looking hybrid).

believe there is an HR-V to add to the list of small and relatively cheaper honda models.

 

[jamnolfin]

My niece was got a brand new 2015 Spark for her graduation from her Godmother. It's very nice, great mpg. I would buy it if I wanted a small car.

 

[colonelburke]

Ford Fiesta has been getting good reviews.

 

[RunRonnieRun]

Honda, Toyota, Hyundai

 

[kc78]

Yes, I'm trying to find something between 10 - 12k for just getting around town in. There seem to be a number of Ford Fiesta's getting decent reviews. Outside of something like the Honda Fit, most everything on that is closer to 15k. I had not considered Hyundai. I had one years ago that was terrible, but they have improved their reputation a great deal over the last 10 years.

 

[Semiologist]

Had it as a rental car for a week , do not buy. I highly recommend a Honda as a previous poster said, they are very reliable. The spark just felt cheaply put together inside. Can't go wrong with a civic or cr-z (cool looking hybrid).

We also ended up with this car as a rental. The rental agent even asked if we were okay with a Spark. We didn't know better, and said yes.
You can't wrap your mind around how small this car actually is until you've been in it. My wife and I are not big people, and we were almost touching shoulders. The only advantage was the B&B we were staying at had limited parking and this car could get into the one tiny spot at the end. I even mentioned to the wife that if it didn't turn well enough to go into the spot, I honestly thought I could push the rear end around to line it up.

 

[LT4PLY]

I have rented 2 sparks. One was newer (i.e. less miles) and the top trim version and the other was older and the bottom trim version. The newer one with the better trim package was very nice. The other one obviously had its share of rental abuse and was not.

If you are in or around Florida Id go to offleaseonly and buy a used Chevy Volt or Nissan Leaf. They had a volt when I was there last for low teens and tons of Leafs for around 10 grand, still under warranty and some had under 10k miles. I have a Volt and with the 40 mile range in Tallahassee I rarely switch to gas. With the Leaf's 90 mile range I would never have a problem with range and you can't beat the price with a baseball bat. I have yet to even notice the impact on my power bill. In fact, after putting in a new AC at home and using the Volt daily our power bill is WAY less than it was. They say it costs about a buck to fully charge the Volt if it is dead and I rarely come home dead so maybe 75 cents a day or something like that.

If you haven't driven an electric car please do (NOT hybrid, full electric or EREV). They are quiet, quick, heavy and solid. I can't say enough about it and I have had LOTS of cars including luxury ones and it is by far the best commuter car I have ever owned.

 

[kc78]

The Nissan Leaf is electric only correct? So there is no option to switch to gas like with the volt?

 

[LT4PLY]

The Nissan Leaf is electric only correct? So there is no option to switch to gas like with the volt?

That is correct. Leaf is all electric with approx 90 mile range. They also make a Spark EV that has I think the same 90 mile range.

Volt is an EREV with approx 40 mile range but will fire up the gas engine to charge the batteries so no range limitation. Before buying the Volt I would have never considered an all electric but after having it for in town use it really is fine. Driving 90 miles in a day for me in town would be darn near impossible. The days I go over the battery in the Volt it is either freezing (electric heat eats battery life which is why they tell you to remote start the car before leaving while it is plugged in) or I drove the kids to school, then to work, then lunch, then picked them up, back home, then to football practice across town, then back. In both cases the gas engine might run for 5 miles.

We do generally drive the Volt out of town though because it is so cheap and really is a great car (comfortable, quiet, drives great). It was really hard justifying jumping in our Navigator, Infiniti, BMW, etc. to go to Orlando, Panama City, wherever. when the Volt gets 40 MPG on the highway vs a dumpster fire 15. The navigator ended up sitting so much I sold it.

For a perspective on gas I can't remember the last time I filled the Volt up. It was the last time I went out of town I am sure a few months back. I filled up the massive 8 gallon tank for the first time this year April to go on a trip and hadn't filled it since November