In the United States, the Chevrolet Spark has all but one competitor – the Mitsubishi Mirage. The Spark does relatively well in the segment, which is nice. But you know what’s even better? The Spark with projector beam headlamps and LED accents. Chevy offers just that on the Spark… but only in South Korea.
Sales Numbers - Mainstream City Cars (A Segment) - August 2017 - USA
| MODEL | AUG 17 / AUG 16 | AUGUST 17 | AUGUST 16 | YTD 17 / YTD 16 | YTD 17 | YTD 16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPARK | -36.86% | 1,855 | 2,938 | -53.54% | 11,827 | 25,458 |
| MIRAGE | +1.04% | 1,557 | 1,541 | +5.06% | 16,804 | 15,994 |
| TOTAL | -23.82% | 3,412 | 4,479 | -30.93% | 28,631 | 41,452 |
By comparison, the North American market Spark – which is built in Korea at the same GM Changwon factory as the Korean-market Spark – does not even offer the feature as an option. Instead, the only headlamps on the small car in America are halogen headlamps – the most basic and least effective kind of automotive lighting on the market day. At least the Spark has automatic lamp control as a standard feature across all models.
Top: South Korean market Spark with projector beam headlights and LED accents. Bottom: American-market Spark with basic halogen headlights.
The GM Authority Take
It seems pretty clear that Chevy should offer the Korean-market Spark’s headlamps as an option in America. The projector beams are much more effective in lighting the road ahead while the accent LEDs look great. The entire headlamps cluster in the Korean-market Spark looks much better than the model we get. As the adage says, the eyes are the windows to the soul. And this also rings true for cars.
Second-generation, Korean-market Chevrolet Spark
We would think that offering the better headlamps on the Spark would be common sense for GM’s ongoing efforts to increase retail sales in North America. The move would also work to boost the Spark’s Average Transaction Prices (ATPs) – a metric that indicates consumers’ willingness to pay top dollar for a model and its various optional features.
Alas, as long as the American-market Spark doesn’t offer the better and more attractive headlamps of its Korean-market twin (even as an option), we’ll chalk it up to Chevrolet cutting corners in its most important market… a market that recently became even more important after GM pulled out of Europe.
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Comments
They could be said the same for the Malibu. Even the Malibu there have HID/LED headlight and here we don’t got none. Not sure for the Cruze though
Probably due to Uncle Sam’s weird (and backwards) regulations on headlights most likely.
While I agree that the US does have some archaic federal motor vehicle laws related to lighting, this one is not explained by that. The lights used in the Spark in Korea have the same specs as the ones on the Cruze sold here and there… but are arranged in a different configuration. This is a case of Chevy decontending the Spark for higher profits, plain and simple.
General Motors has said they will introduce 20 new EV and Fuel Cell cars by 2023 which means GM is stuck with the Chevrolet Spark the way it is until a EV replacement is ready in 3-4 years; although, it can change the personality of the Spark with the new engines GM has just introduced the new Ecotec 3 1.0 L (999 cc) DI DCVCP 3-cyl turbo which has undergone 4 Million miles of development and as consequent 25 percent (3 dBA) quieter than the Ford Fiesta’s 1.0-liter turbo while providing 90 percent of their max torque between 1500 and 5000 rpm.
The Chevrolet Spark’s EV replacement is called the Chevrolet Bolt EV. It’s already here, as we all know.
That said, new engines could do well in the Spark… and would be welcome.
There should be no GM vehicle sold elsewhere that offers more than you can get in the US.
Mexico also offers the Korean made Spark with projector lamps and LED, however there is no Auto Light function offered and therefore no advantage to use the LED as the DRL. what a waste.
The Projection lights and LED signature lights would have been nice to get but the Korean market also only gets the 1.0L engine and only 8 airbags to go with the car (no knee airbags). I prefer to keep the 1.4L engine and hang on to all the airbags I can get in a tiny car if I have to choose one. Besides I think these HID lights would probably trickle down to the north american market down the road unless ofcourse the Spark gets discontinued.
can i have part no. of that headligth pls.