Remember when Farago asked what wasn’t wrong with this picture of the Chevy Spark? It turns out that despite 74 comments, nobody correctly identified the Spark’s major flaw: it’s a hunk of foam. The Spark was first teased on the Today show, where GM Design guru Ed Welburn first showed off the city car’s Pokemonesque snout. At the time, we (and everyone else in the autoblogosphere) concluded it was a Beat Concept, ignoring Welburn’s promise that it was a “new” city car concept set to debut on Sunday at the Detroit Auto Show. When Sunday came, GM only rolled a Beat into COBO Hall but posted a picture of the Spark on its corporate webpage promising a production model by 2011. Confused, the guys at Kickingtires contacted GM and learned that the Spark wasn’t rolled out because they don’t even have a rolling prototype of it, just the foam model that was trotted out for Today. The “real” Spark prototype will be revealed at the Geneva Auto Show later this year, but for the record, GM’s Beat/Spark policy seems to currently stand as follows. Beat was shown a year ago, 2.5m webizens voted for it over its Trax and Groove concept-mates, and it was then ruled out for an American launch. Now there’s not even a prototype Spark, but we’re told it will definitely come to the US. Confused? You probably should be.
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Confused? No. This is GM we’re talking about for goodness sake. Now if they’d rolled out a nicely conceived, well thought out pre-production vehicle with a market and acceptable price point, THEN I would have been confused.
Whee, more concepts, more flash, more pizzaz! Volts, Cruzes, Beats and Sparks! Camaros with huge engines! Cadillacs with drivetrains powered by happy thoughts!
Still selling Aveos and Cobalts, though.
I wonder what this year’s Saab concept-that-will-never-reach-production will be
I hope they come through with it, it’s actually a handsome little car. Much better than the Aveo or many other econoboxes. Provided it’s built well (lol), it’d make a great alternative for those who were left behind by things like the Fit and xB getting fat.
TexN and psarhjinian you crack me up.
If the word ‘farce’ didn’t exist they would have to invent it for GM.
For all their success churning out concepts that will never actually be real cars, they could be Hot Wheels.
NickR: For all their success churning out concepts that will never actually be real cars, they could be Hot Wheels.
An unfair comparison.
I believe that Hot Wheels are actually profitable.
Guys, I think you just stumbled onto the answer to GM’s financial woes. Switch to making toy cars!
Heck, maybe they’ll even still overpay their union workers to paint 3″ Corvettes.
They have already built the “Canyonero” and “The Homer: ”
Now they just need the Ed Begley Jr. Go-Cart that is powered only by a sense of self-satisfaction.
@ geeber
And built by a company with a larger market cap.
http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f12/gms-market-value-drops-below-toy-car-maker-mattel-66391/
Didn’t the have a contest about 3 of their small concept cars a couple of years ago? Consumers pick the one they like the most and GM would build it? Only once the consumers chose they never built the @#$! thing!?!?!?
I guess this is a continuation of that same strategy…
I knew it was just a warmed-over Beat.
I guess you’d call it a Re-Beat? ;-)
Maybe this foam car IS the production version.
After global warming melts all the ice caps and floods the earth these cars will stay afloat.
Anyone watch Monster Garage?
Some great thought here guys. Thanks for the chuckles.
Dear General,
I already think you’re bad.
Shoot, I’ll throw in awful, lame, pathetic and lousy at no extra charge.
Cheerio,
Bunter
Green might be the color for environmentalists, but did that have to pick the shade that reminds me of low-end 1970’s style kitchens?
Wrong Edward. That particular picture IS of the production vehicle. The vehicle shown on the Today show, however, WAS the foam model.
Remember that this is a Daewoo, not a Chevy or other GM company
The Cruze exists in Korea and is coming out soon there and in Europe.
The Spark will come out in Korea, Europe and India before long because the Matiz/Spark are in high demand there. The Spark coming out in North America has a lot more to do with GMs marketing/business people than any engineering ability.
Why couldn’t they have shown this car instead. It has a 190 hp Diesel and there is a video of it running around a track – so it’s real.
http://www.chevrolet.co.uk/conceptcars/conceptcars-wtcc-ultra.html
Any excuse to link to English car reviews,
No one eviscerates a mediocre car like the English:
http://www.topgear.com/uk/chevrolet/matiz
http://www.topgear.com/uk/chevrolet/aveo
http://www.parkers.co.uk/gbu/Detail.aspx?deriv=31216
So these are what GM is basing it’s recovery on? And the vaporvolt?
Fail.
I wanna’ see a Chevy Chuckle and its fancier, more expensive, near-twin the Chevy Chortle.
@SethL
What are you, stupid? None of those vehicles have anything to do with this new Spark. Besides that, if you knew anything about newer GMDAT vehicles, you’d know their quality is on par with the best of the best.
Well, I’ll ask again. Why do you lot pay any attention to show cars and concept cars? What is the attraction? Occasionally a manufacturer rolls out a show car that bears some real relevance to their future product, but mostly they are damp kleenex jobs for the teenagers.
Look at a great example. GM Volt production intent. Now look at two prime influences – the show car, basically a Camaro show car, redetailed, and a 1990 Daewoo/Pontiac. Which does it most closely resemble? Why waste any time on the show car?
There’s an answer to these “What’s wrong with this picture” questions? I always thought those where rhetorical questions designed to elicit more comments to support the rhetoric…
More vapor-ware from GM. Ho-hum. Next?
Also, why would any marketing department allow a car to be named the Beat? Just two measley letters away from the famous pejorative car description…..
In Michigan, a POS car is called a Beater. The moniker is not usually an affectionate term.
In the former days of Michigan prosperity, a beater was an annual fall purchase so that one’s prime ride could reside comfortably in the garage during the horrid winter months, to avoid salt and road damage until the snow melted and the potholes were fixed in Spring.
Of course, now that the dead economy in Michigan means few in that state can afford a prime car, “beaters” are the transpo order of the day for the masses.
So, what lame-brain, group-think committee at GM thought “the Beat” was a good idea?
It will be called Spark