Wednesday, September 30, 2015

2012 - 15 Chevy Spark

It "Sparks" a Little Interest

Key words: "A Little"


The Chevy Spark has been in production in some way or another since 1998. Many people around the world might know it as a Daewoo / Chevy Matiz. It is a small "city car" that is supposed to be Chevrolet's least expensive car on the road. It is now in its third generation and has been available in North America since 2012. It was made to compete against the Smart Car, Fiat 500, Mazda 2, and the newer Scion iQ.
Let's take a look:



Different Styles:


The Chevy Spark basically only comes in one style in North America; a 5-door hatchback with only 4 seats. Before 2014 it had either a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed auto transmission, the 4-speed has been replaced by a CVT.
It only has one engine, the smallest Chevrolet makes; a 1.2L 4 cylinder gas engine. 

Now in very small numbers, and in only a select few states in the U.S., the Chevy Spark could be bought as a 100% electric vehicle. As that is not an easily available car, I will not review it....yet.

Styling and Comfort Impressions:


The Chevy Spark was designed to basically just look like a very small car, unlike competitors who try to make their "city cars" look different than a normal car, and Chevy has done a good job.
The Spark really just looks like a smaller version of the Chevy Sonic, which doesn't look bad itself. It has big lights in the front and back to make it look like a bug, somewhat small windows, and decent-sized tires. It comes in a variety of fun, bright colours so you can really make it your own. 
Going inside isn't too bad. It does have mostly cheap, hard plastics but keep in mind how inexpensive this car is. The controls are easy to use and in a good position. The dashboard is pretty small, consisting of one large circle for your speed and then a small screen to the side that shows your RPM, fuel level and a variety of other figures depending on which buttons you push on the side of it.
You can get parts of the interior to match the exterior colour of the car; a nice touch.
The front seats are way too soft and not supportive at all. If you push back hard enough, you can actually feel the whole seat flex and bend. Headroom is good, but the seats don't go far enough back to give good legroom while driving.
The sound system is quite bad if its just the 4 speaker setup. The upgraded 6 speakers are not much better.
















Getting into one of the two extremely small back seats isn't fun. While the door opens nice and wide, there just isn't enough room to shove your legs in if the front seats are in any sort of comfortable position. Once you are in, and are sitting behind a short person in front, there is OK headroom due to the hatchback design and high roof. You sit very upright and your knees literally dig into the back of the person driving, not ideal for anything but a short trip in the city. 
Finally the trunk, or lack there of. If all seats are up, the trunk only has enough space for maybe two small carry one suitcases standing up next to each other. With the seats down, there is actually a respectable about of room. The seats only fold flat if the bottom cushions are pulled up and forward, and the front seats are not all the way back.


Driving Impressions:


City cars are supposed to excel in small spaces, deal with the stop and go world that is city traffic, and be super easy to park. If that was all that the Spark would have to do, it is fantastic. However, we all use cars for multiple purposes and while it may spend most of the time in the city, for those rare occasions when you need to get onto the open road, things aren't so nice.
The car has a nice upright sitting position for the driver, combined with the relatively large windows, you have very good visibility, a plus in heavy traffic and small parking garages.
When you turn the engine on it's actually very smooth, but in no way is it quiet. The engine then stays pretty loud no matter what speed you are going, especially when it's pushed, but it still remains smooth the whole time ( how did they do it?).
The turning radius for the Chevy Spark is very good, you could easily turn around in a narrow 2-way street without stopping or hitting the curb. It should also go without saying that parking is super easy due to its narrow width and short length. It can basically fit anywhere.
If you ever need to get the car out on the open highway get ready for a battle. The engine is very weak. it struggles to keep up with traffic going 100 km/h + . Passing is something that really should not be attempted. The wind and road noise at highways speeds is also pretty bad, making normal conversations hard without yelling.
Yet throughout it all, the car actually handles and rides very well. It's nimble and soaks up bumps pretty well without being bouncy. 

Overall:


For the Chevy Spark to work for you, the situation would have to be specific. You live in a large dense city, you actually do need a car everyday for some reason and you are on a budget. The other situation is: you live just on the edge of a large city, where you work and do most of your daily activities, you have another vehicle in the house for moving the family around and longer trips, but you need a second car. 
It is suitable for occasional short trips through the city where you need to drive at least 2 other people, and just a tiny bit of stuff. Or its just you but you need to move a decent bit of stuff around on occasion.
Would I pick it? No, because there are better options out there. the Chevy Spark is not he worst, but it's definitely not the best, even if you are working with a budget. Mazda 2 or Mitsubishi Mirage are nicer and cheap. Minis and Fiats might be more fun, but they can't hold 4 people well and are expensive. The Spark falls somewhere in the middle, like the Nissan Micra.

Facts/ Figures:


Price ( for mid trim level): $16,000+
FWD
Max HP: 85
Max Torque ft-lbs: 82
MPG (approx*): City: 27 Highway: 36
Cargo room (approx*): 11, 31 CuFt
Length: 145''
Width: 64''
Tank Size (gal): 9.2
Miles on one tank (using combined MPG figures): 300
Average used price with 60,000KM or less: $11,000+

* when I say "approx" I usually am using the numbers given by the actual manufacturer or Consumer Reports, minus 1 to be a bit more realistic. 
**No pictures featured are my own, they have been taken either from Google images or the manufacturer's website and their rightful owners should get any credit for them. This review featured all pictures from the manufacturer's websites ( some through Edmunds.com).

Links:
Chevy Canada

Related Cars:


Enjoy!

J.K.

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Fixing up old posts

Going to do some fall cleaning


I have noticed that some of the pictures in some of the posts have become corrupted. I will over the next few weeks go through all the old posts and put up good pictures again.

Stay tuned, a new post it coming!

J.K.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

2010 - 15 Scion TC Review

Does the "TC" stand for Totally Cool?

The car is cool, but its not for everyone.


Scion is a sub-company of Toyota who's main purpose was to offer young buyers a line of cool and edgy cars and offer a huge line of customization options. Their main vehicle is the Scion TC. It is a compact vehicle that was supposed to be the replacement of the Toyota Celica which ended production the first year the TC started sales. Im looking at the second generation of TC, which received a mild "face lift" in late 2014. 
Let's take a look:


Different Styles:


The Scion TC only comes in one style: a 2-door coupe. Wait no, that's not right, its actually a 2-door hatchback! Yup, even though this great looking car looks like an awesome and sporty coupe, in reality it is a very cleverly disguised hatchback! More on that later. . . 
The Scion TC comes only with a 2.5L, 4 cylinder engine that is actually the same as the Toyota Camry's ( not really a good thing for a "sporty" car . . .)
It is FWD.
You can have it with either a 6-speed manual or 6-speed auto transmission. 
It has 5 seats ( even though only 4 are really usable).

Styling and Comfort Impressions:


Let's make this easy.  This car looks fantastic on the outside. It's edgy, it's got great sporty angles, large sporty-looking wheels, sharp lights, and the 2014 face lift made it even better! It's not a very long car, but it does have a long wheelbase and a wide low stance that makes it look like it can tackle just about any racetrack.
Going inside is a slightly different story. It still looks somewhat sporty, but there could possibly be more chrome, aluminum, or carbon fiber accents. It's just too plain for this vehicle, and everything is just black plastic. And just grey seats. In either cloth or leather. 
Note - There are some specific versions of the Scion TC that you can order that will have more coloured accents inside that liven it up a bit ( Orange / Black edition...).
The dash layout is good and there are just a minimal about of large knobs and buttons which is good, everything is angled toward the driver too. 
The seats save the interior a bit. They are very comfortable and supportive  it is supposed to be sporty remember). You have very good head and leg room in the front, even though it is a low car. 
The sound system is supposed to pretty good, but for a car like this, I found it just adequate. It does have 8 speakers but the system isn't the easiest to use and quality seemed to be just acceptable. 
Take a look:



The rear seats for the Scion TC are actually pretty good, for two people. First off, getting into the back is relatively easy due to long doors and front seats that slide easily, meaning quite a large gap to get through. The two outer seats are very deep and almost like bucket seats, so they are comfortable and supportive. There is plenty of leg room but head room is limited due to the low roof and sloping rear hatch. A unique feature the TC has is that the rear seats can recline a bit, so that on longer trips, rear passengers can get a bit more comfortable. The front passenger seat also folds flat for long items. 
Finally, the trunk. Its pretty good, it has a decent length to it, but due to the car being disguised as a coupe, you don't get much height. The seats do fold down flat though, so you can have as much interior volume as some larger compact hatchbacks, but the TC looks better. Also, it has a rear window wiper that is nice and large, good for bad weather. 


Driving Impressions:


If you have been following my blog for some time now, you may remember a review I did on the Hyundai Veloster (non-turbo). Well, this is like that. To put in one word: disappointing. Let's start with the driving position. While the drivers seat is comfortable, you sit so low in the car, and the windows are so high and small, that visibility is quite bad. The awesome coupe / hidden hatchback design means that the rear quarter roof supports are huge and create huge blind spots. 
Start up the engine and it's loud. Not super loud, but loud enough to make people think you have a sporty car. That's good for impression's sake I guess. The engine is loud no matter what speed you are going; it's a sporty car so this is acceptable. You want a sporty car not because it's quiet, but because it makes some noise, gives you the feeling of power and speed.
It's not just the engine making noise either, at higher speeds there is quite a bit of road noise that is coming in through a combination of crazy big wheels as standard (18 inch), and the aerodynamics / lack of sound insulation. 
Let's get back to the ride quality: rough. It comes with 18 inch rims as standard which is pretty large for a small car like this. The suspension is also tuned to be sporty as well, so there is no relief there. The car is also not very heavy so it can't use its weight to soak up bumps. 
The turning is tight and responsive, which is actually very good. 
The power the engine puts out is at least better than on the Veloster, which was just sad. In normal drive mode the car feels like any other normal compact, with adequate acceleration, but put it into "sport mode" and the TC really comes alive. Quick shifts and high revs really move the TC and the true sporty nature of the car comes out. It may be the engine from a Toyota Camry, but the car is much lighter so that engine can really whip it around!

Overall:


The Scion TC looks awesome from the outside, has a decent interior, and can comfortably seat 4 adults. It has the looks of a sporty car, but the practicality of a hatchback. The engine has enough power to get you moving, it has tight handling, and not horrible fuel efficiency. It also has the nice ability to be easily customized. However, you need to be looking for a certain type of car for this to work for you. If you are looking for a sporty car, that just happens to be somewhat practical, and has the backing of one of the most reliable companies (Toyota) then the Scion TC may be a good fit. If you are looking for any sort of comfort while driving it, the TC is not for you. If they could offer the TC with some smaller rims and a base trim that wasn't so sport tuned, it could be a very good car for the masses. Would I pick it? No, because there are other options out there that are more practical, more comfortable, and just as fun. However, that coupe design may be enough for some people to pick it over a traditional hatchback. 
Note - be careful when looking at used ones as owners tend to do their own modifications on them as well, which are normally not the best.

Facts/ Figures:


Price ( for mid trim level): $25,000+
FWD
Max HP: 179
Max Torque ft-lbs: 172
MPG (approx*): City: 22 Highway: 31
Cargo room (approx*): 15, 35 CuFt
Length: 177''
Width: 71''
Tank Size (gal): 14.5
Miles on one tank (using combined MPG figures): 390
Average used price with 60,000KM or less: $13,000

* when I say "approx" I usually am using the numbers given by the actual manufacturer or Consumer Reports, minus 1 to be a bit more realistic. 
**No pictures featured are my own, they have been taken either from Google images or the manufacturer's website and their rightful owners should get any credit for them. This review featured all pictures from the manufacturer's websites ( some through Edmunds.com).

Related Cars:


Enjoy!

J.K.


Thursday, August 6, 2015

Im coming back soon!

Hello Internet World, Miss Me?


I know I haven't posted anything new in quite a while, my bad. Ever since the summer started I have been working 60+ hour work weeks between two jobs, so unfortunately I haven't had any chances to review or write about any cars. 
Remember I do actually drive all these cars at some point, so I cant just read other reviews and use the same stuff, that's just not cool.
But, summer will soon be ending for me which means Ill be able to get back into the game!
There have been a number of updates in the small car world so I also will have new material to talk about. 
I may also start to expand the reviews to midsize / mid-price cars as well. Ill have to think about that one...

So don't worry, I have some good reviews lined up and I should be ready to start posting again in a few weeks.

If you are new to the blog, you still have plenty of time to catch up!

Have a great rest of the summer world! ( if you are in the Northern Hemisphere...) 

J.K.