“The U.S. production version of the Spark will go on sale in early 2012.”
– Direct from a January 2010 NAIAS press release.
“Currently available in Asia and Europe, the Spark will debut in the United States in 2012.”
– Direct from a presser about the Chevy Spark getting a five-star crash safety rating in the Korean New Car Assessment Program.
“We said we would bring Spark some time in 2012 and that remains in place based on what we see as the current market environment.”
– A recent quote from GM product and brand spokesperson Jason Laird.
“We have the opportunity to do that if we want to do it, but we haven’t made any decisions on that yet.”
-GM North America President Mark Reuss during an interview with Fox News.
What does this all boil down to? To us, it seems that General Motors is currently unsure about launching the Chevy Spark subcompact here in the United States, despite confirmations early on (and so what if they had one at SEMA?). As far as the “market environment” will be in this country by 2012, that could be code for something like: “we want to see if a car like the Fiat 500 will be a hit or not, then we’ll gauge on weather we launch the Spark in the U.S. or not.”
As most of you know, the Fiat 500 is just a wee bit larger than the Smart ForTwo, and is a direct competitor with the Chevy Spark in Europe, as well as the Ford Ka — which The Blue Oval also seems uncertain about launching the vehicle in the ‘States.
We could still see the Spark in North America, down in Mexico, where the Chevrolet Matiz is currently available — where the Spark would be the car’s much needed replacement. Hopefully we will get more answers during the year.
Comments
*UPDATE*
I just received word from Cristi Vazquez today at 2:50pm PST. I asked her about the remarks from North American GM President Mark Reuss statement on FoxNews.com last week on no decision on the Spark coming to North America (United States) for 2012.
Here’s her reply:
“Chevrolet’s plan for Spark has not changed, based on current market conditions. As we continues our momentum in the small car market, the Spark is in the product plan for 2012, joining the Cruze and recently unveiled Sonic in the portfolio in North America. Spark is already sold in over 30 countries around the world and would be a new addition to the North American portfolio.”
Cristi Vazquez| Chevrolet Communications |
100 Renaissance Center | Mail Code 482-A30-D19 | Detroit, MI 48265-1000
Office: 313.665.8232 | Mobile: 248.410.7827 | Fax: 313.667.4100
[email protected]
GMInside News Forum also confirms that the Spark is indeed coming in 2012 in a similar statement.
My understanding is Mexico, Canada, and the United States will all have this car sometime by the end of 2012.
Of course, this is great news for me as I want to upgrade my smart fortwo city car for a new Chevrolet Spark ASAP! 😀
We will report on Cristi’s remarks, but clearly somebody is not on the right page here. And “North American Market” (as she states) does not directly mean USA.
If you recall, GM originally planned to sell the Chevrolet Orlando in the USA starting this year — but as we know they later dropped that plan, though the Orlando will still launch in the North American market because it will launch in Canada.
Personally, I am a fan of the Spark. I saw plenty of them in Europe last September, and they are hip little urban machines. I also wish to see them launch in the States, as well as drive one. But until Mark Reuss and crew are all delivering the same message regarding the vehicle, we will retain our skepticism.
Well, I must admit this is getting weirder. As you may know, GM is going out on tour with its “Main Street in Motion”
http://www.mainstreetinmotion.com/Default.aspx
Where they’ll have over 70+ cars on tour through various cities in the U.S. for people to compare and test drive.
I wrote in and asked if the new Chevy Spark would be one of the new vehicles on display. Here was their reply:
“Thank you for contacting Chevrolet and for your interest in the Spark! We appreciate the time you have taken to write us.
The Spark is considered a concept; show car. At this time, no official announcements regarding its production have been made. We value your business and apologize for the inconvenience….”
Concept show car?!
This seems like this is the case of the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing as clearly the Spark is available in several countries now, including Mexico.
It’s too bad we’re getting multiple answers from GM. I again wrote to Cristi yesterday (I’m sure she’s getting sick of me), attached with my latest email reply from GM.
I asked her to please settle this problem with conflicting information from GM’s own P/R department.
I hope I get a reply that will settle this once and for all…
No offense to the PR team, but if you want a straight answer, you have to bypass them and contact the engineers. Jim Federico is the current VLE for the entire Gamma-II platform (Spark, Sonic, Corsa), Epsilon II (Regal, ‘Bu, LaX, Insignia, XTS) and Delta II (Astra, Verano, Cruze) and we plan on asking him all sorts of questions on his projects soon — but as you can see, the man’s got a lot on his plate.
Damn, I thought this was a sure thing. I was beginning to get suspicious when I noticed they released which plant the Sonic will be made in. They should have been doing the same for the Spark since the car was released worldwide first. This is THE CAR I have been waiting for. I have no interest in the Sonic or Fiat 500 and the IQ costs too damn much. Come on Chevy!
As usual American manufacturers want to disallow American buyers the choice of purchasing smaller compact & fuel efficient vehicles sold in most other countries. They only want Americans to have access to either more gas guzzling models or simply more expensive cars period. I wanted to trade in my current Cobalt but told them to forget it when I found out that the Spark is not yet in US markets and it is the only new Chevy vehicle I am currently interested in.
To: Ian, Athlor, and anyone else interested in seeing the Spark in the USA:
Fortunately, GM’s North American President, Mark Reuss made a statement at the NYIAS on the 20th of April that all but confirms the arrival of the US Version of the Spark next year in 2012 as a 2013 year model:
Mark Reuss, the President of GM North America said at the opening of the New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) today,
“…next year… the Spark mini-car join our all-new family of expressive, fuel-efficient cars here in the U.S.”
It was part of a much larger speech he made, but it now seems to be the final word on ending the debate on the Spark coming to the US.
Below is a link to his entire speech:
http://media.gm.com/…20_reuss_malibu
-Tom
Ok, that link didn’t work. Try this:
http://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/news.detail.brand_chevrolet.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2011/Apr/0420_reuss_malibu
Ian: http://gmauthority.com/blog/2011/04/shocker-reuss-confirms-chevy-spark-for-u-s-market/