Light my fire

All it needs is a little Chevrolet Spark.

If there was somebody in the automotive industry who knew how to spend money well, it would be Kim Woo Choong, the erstwhile chairman of the Daewoo group.

It's another thing that he spent money a little too well, ending up on the wrong side of the law and leading one of South Korea's biggest chaebols to ruin. Kim's profligate ways however benefited the biggest carmaker in the universe, General Motors, when they picked up the Daewoo car business.

Today, GM-Daewoo Automotive Technologies is providing the biggest support to mothership GM with a lineup of well thought-out cars at a time when the General is going through some difficult times.

One of the cars that was particularly a windfall for GM was the Daewoo Matiz "" you see, GM is not exactly a specialist in making small runabouts, and with the Matiz, they ended up with a well-engineered supermini that showcased cheeky Italian lines and one which was a hit in most markets it was sold in.

GM-DAT gave the Matiz a thorough facelift inside-out, replaced the three-cylinder motor with an inline-four, stuck the Chevrolet bowtie at various spots and renamed it the Spark.

In this guise, the Spark is now sold in over a 100 countries, including our own. So how is new Spark? Is it a Daewoo deja vu or does it need to be seen as a fresh, all-new product? Read on.

Powering the little Chevy is a 995cc four-cylinder motor that develops 62.13 bhp at 5400 rpm and 9.02 kgm of torque at 4200 rpm. This is an exuberant engine that is well-matched to the Spark's cheeky personality. It is peppy and never does it feel as if it's going to run out of steam.

Doing a good job of extracting that power and transferring it to the front wheels is a slick-shifting five-speed manual gearbox. The drivetrain has been brilliantly adapted to Indian driving conditions by GMI engineers.

The zippy power delivery, the smooth gearshifts, the spot-on gear ratios and the narrow dimensions of the car mean that they make short work of your daily commute in thick traffic. So is it a good tool for city driving? You bet! That's not all. The Spark surprised me with something else too.

There are not many small cars sold in India that you feel confident in while doing over 160 kph. Here I was pushing a Chevy Spark wearing a gorgeous shade of red on the highway, and for a car that has a similar footprint as the tinny Maruti Suzuki Estilo, was remarkably composed.

Never once did it feel out of depth and it remained planted as if this is something absolutely naturally expected from a car like it. Not just that. Even at 160 kph, the engine doesn't seem stressed too much and has more juice to offer. And this precocious habit is just one of the nice things I like about the Spark. Putting it to the test, the Spark managed the 0 to 60 kph run in 6.4 seconds, while it took 15.2 seconds to attain the 100 kph mark.

Those figures not just meet expectations from cars in this category, but actually better them. While it is indeed quick, we attempted some 0 to 100 kph to 0 runs too, where it came up with a best timing of 20 seconds.

Again, quite exemplary when you look at the cold figures. But it's the way in which it decelerated that was impressive, not losing composure during panic braking the way other cars in its segment do.

General Motors claims that the Spark does not have more than 10 per cent of leftover components from the Matiz "" now that means it's quite a substantial revamp.

The key strengths of the Matiz was its brilliant ride quality and handling abilities, and that, I am happy to announce folks, is also the Spark's. Not surprising, considering the Spark has spent quality time with those chassis and suspension specialists at Lotus.

The suspension setup comprises McPherson struts at front and a torsion beam axle at the rear, and this is further complimented by gas-charged shock absorbers and tubeless tyres. Ride quality again is much better than its competitors like the Estilo and the Santro Xing, while handling is at another league altogether.

Okay, you don't expect a tall-ish car like the Spark to handle like, say the erstwhile Zen, but then it is pretty sorted out nevertheless. The Spark does not dislike corners, and is also not put off-track by them, which I think is more than what you'd expect from these new-gen tall-boys.

The only thing that could do with some improvement is the steering feedback, but that would come at the cost of driveability and manoeuvrability in traffic and in tight spots. So let it be.

The Matiz was one hell of a cute car to look at and even today, those lines don't look dated. But GM-DAT have substantially "trendied" up the car without losing much of the original's cheekiness.

Now they could have kept the body panels identical and be satisfied with just a new set of clear-lens headlamps and taillamps. Instead, the Spark wears an all-new wardrobe which is quite unique compared to the other cars in its segment. Those queer headlamps, rounded taillamps, a piscine face and those funky roof rails all give it an identity of its own.

The biggest surprise is on the inside. Behind the distinctive steering wheel is not what you'd normally see, but a lineup of all the idiot lights like handbrake, fuel etc.

The instrument console is actually housed in a pod in the centre of the dash. It takes a few moments to get used to, but it surprisingly works. It's only in the night when you see no lights lit up behind the steering wheel that it feels unnerving momentarily.

The insides are as funky as the exterior design, and the quality of materials used is also quite good for a car from this segment. And it's pretty utility oriented and passenger friendly too.

What however GM needs to do is to raise the front seats a little bit as it slopes downwards, but otherwise the Spark is a delightful place to live in. More importantly, what you'll experience in the car is that it does not feel as claustrophobic either, compared to the Estilo or Wagon R, for instance.

So it's pretty clear that the Spark is a very good small car. It's quick and peppy, funky to look at, rides and handles quite well and is at home both in traffic jams and on open highways.

To top it all, big man Rick Wagoner came along with a pleasant surprise too when he launched the Spark in the country. At Rs 3.09 lakh (ex-showroom Thane, which means you have to add about four per cent for octroi to get the ex-showroom Mumbai prices) for the entry-level Spark, it's killer pricing indeed.

In fact, the superbly equipped top-end LT version, which wears a price tag of Rs 3.89 lakh, is great value for money. Buying the new Chevrolet Spark is certainly money well spent. I am sure a certain Kim cooling his heels in some dank place will agree with me.