Crash Tested: Euro NCAP Beats Up 2009 Chevy Spark (Video)
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Back in 2009, the European New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) crash tested the Chevy Spark. The little city car scored an overall four stars and 81 percent for adult occupant, 78 percent for child occupant, 43 percent for pedestrian friendliness, and 43 percent for safety assistance systems. Pretty good for a teensy little car that you’d think wouldn’t be as safe as a larger one… right?
NCAP found that the Spark’s pedestrian impact friendliness was marginal in several areas of the vehicle and since the car didn’t have Electronic Stability Control (ESC) or a form of Speed Limitation Assistance (do we really need that?), it earned zero points in those two aspects of the safety assist category.
Nevertheless, here is some absorbing crash test footage:
As a reminder, front impact takes place at 64 Km/h (40 MPH) with 40 percent of the width of the car striking a deformable barrier. In the side impact, a mobile deformable barrier impacts the driver’s door at 50 km/h (31 MPH), while the pole test involves the car being propelled sideways at 29km/h (18 MPH) into a rigid pole.
Now that you’ve watched the footage, check out our first drive of the Spark.
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I want to buy a Chevy Spark EV for local traveling. Here I see plenty of Smarts and Fiats, and a few Scion minicars. But I know that the Spark is a worldwide car (I saw it in a Colombian soap opera), and it is larger and safer than these other minicars, so it is well proven and accepted. When will GM bring the Sparks to the U.S. and all of its territories?
The Spark is already being sold in the U.S… The Spark EV, though, is on its way. Most likely launching in the next 12-16 months.