Love my Spark, despite pathetic GM dealers. Review on Chevrolet Spark

I heard that new GM vehicles are only for people who change cars very frequently, and I wondered why. Now I know from my first hand experience with Spark LT. I got the delivery in the first week of December 2007. First the good stuff:

The car is good, in fact the best in the segment(better than Estilo, WagonR, Santro) in terms of looks and comfort. I've driven more than 2000 KM in the last 2 months, and am satisfied with my choice. Spark looks great. Even though it looks small, it has comfortable space for 4, and can fit 5 people without being too uncomfortable. The boot is really small, but only daredevils will go far from a big city in a General Motors car, with practcally non existant service network in India.

I'm getting about 14 KM/litre without A/C in Delhi/Noida traffic. Will know about milege with A/C only in summers. Though not great, the milege is OK considering the comfort levels. The dashboard is quite good, and gives the feeling of a big car for driver and front passenger. Once you sit in a Spark, you'll understand what I mean. The shock absorbers do their job just fine. The engine is absolutely silent, and though not peppy enough for speed devils, comfortably keeps the vehicle abreast with any other car of its category. The cabin filters out the outside noise very effectively, and once you roll up the windows, gives very nice insulation from traffic noise. Kudos to GM engineers.

There are small storage spaces all around, and I'm happy in general with these.

Now starts the bad part:

The warranty offered by GM is useless. Workshops/dealerships are not interested in doing any work for which they are not getting payment. Do not expect them to do anything during free services except changing engine oil. And being a GM vehicle, you cannot get it serviced anywhere else like Maruti's and to some extent Hyundai's. All the staff is more or less always busy in handling new business, and serving existing customers is the least of the priorities at GM.

GM boasts a helpline(30308080), but all the helpline people do is forward the complaint to the nearest dealer and you are back to square one. GM only believes in making good vehicles, and selling them using good marketing people. What they do not believe in is to maintain brand loyalty amongst customers by providing service and honouring warranty provided for vehicle.

Hence I've reached the conclusion that unless

1) you have a driver to take care of small issues with the car, or

2) You can dump the present car, and buy a new one the moment the present car develops a snag.

The central console clock in my car is defective, and all my attempts to get it fixed have failed over last 2 months. In my humble opinion, it is not worth buying a vehicle from GM, even if it happens to be good, because, unlike many things, a car is something for which you will need constant support and service from the manufacturer. And if the manufacturer happens to believe in only selling, and not servicing afterwards, all the initial pleasure turns into nightmare sooner or later.

If anyone has better experience with GM dealerships, I am most interested in knowing about that.

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Update on 2nd Feb 2009:

After total of 14 months and 17500 KM, I'm happy to announce that the car didn't develop any new defect except the original manufacturing defects(central console clock, useless A/C). My console clock was fixed after 4 months of pestering. I still have to make do with a nearly useless A/C. Actually, the problem is that engine heat mixes with A/C air, making it less cool. As per my knowledge, this is a defect in many Spark cars, and on pestering the dealers, they replace A/C gas, without any improvement, since the problem is not A/C, but mixing of engine heat with air, after it has been cooled. As a side effect, the cabin is comfortably warm in winters with just the air circulation on, but too warm even with A/C on full time in summers.

I remain impressed with low cabin noise, good ride quality and engine performance. Only if GM India had better dealers, and shown some commitment to honor their car warranty, they would be selling many more cars.

I'm changing my product recommendation to yes, assuming that not many Sparks will be delivered with manufacturing defects.

Update on 26 May 2010: Changing the recommendation to no again. I've had enough troubles with GM dealers that I do not want anyone else go through all the problems associated with owning GM cars. Reiterating that the warranty is USELESS. There are pageful of exception clauses to warranty, and the dealer will sure find one which excuses them from doing any repairs under warranty.

Update on 29 May 2010: After contacting CEO of GM India, my car was repaired under warranty, but at the service station of Shiva Motors, there were bad feelings all around, and I was the only one smiling.