The manufacturing professionals delivering a package as loaded as the Chevrolet Spark, while maintaining a remarkably low price point have made a major achievement.
The 2016 Chevrolet Spark has a 1.4 L all aluminum inline four engine, with four valves per cylinder and variable valve timing. The car runs on regular gasoline produces 98 hp and 94 ft-lbs of torque.
The chassis of this front drive compact is conventional, but despite low curb weight and small size the spark has electric power steering and power brakes. Transmissions are a choice of either five speed manual or dual range continuously variable automatic.
The car is loaded with technology inside the cabin, with a tilt wheel, rear view camera, four speaker AM/FM stereo and 10 airbags. The vehicle also includes ABS, stability control and traction control, as well as the now mandated tire pressure monitoring system. The 15” wheels are shod with all season radials.
I’d like to compare the Spark to one that’s pretty close to my heart since I learned to drive on one of these.
The 1978 Datson B210 also had a 1.4 L gasoline engine running on regular fuel. It was carbureted, used a cast-iron engine block with pushrods and two valves per cylinder, producing 70 hp and 75 ft-lbs of torque.
Transmission choices were a four-speed manual or three speed automatic and the drive was to the rear wheels. Power assists? Save for vacuum boosted brakes, none.
13” steel wheels carried bias ply summer tires and were adorned with plastic hubcaps. The vehicle had no airbags, stability or traction control, no ABS, no trip computer, no tachometer and an AM-only radio. The car was essentially four vinyl covered seats inside a rust-prone tin can.
And the price? USD$4100 list price, although mine was a stripper model that sold for $3700.
Let’s consider inflation since 1978. According to the US government calculated consumer price index, that USD$4100 car would cost USD$15,050 in 2016 dollars.
The Spark is safer, faster, handles better, is more economical, more environmentally friendly, more comfortable, better assembled, will last longer, carries more and better technology, but is actually cheaper at USD$13,000.
Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Rolls Royce; there are lots of outstanding automobiles out there. But for my money, the design for assembly, careful cost control and simplicity of the 2016 Chevy Spark makes it an engineering masterpiece.
It’s about the engineer who has to fight over every screw and clip, the designer who down gauges a part while maintaining its strength, the production manager who squeezes one more unit per hour out of an existing assembly line, those are the heroes who make it possible for people of modest means to drive this technological achievement.
Where’s the “Car of the Year” prize for that?