Chevrolet Spark – is it the safest budget buy out there?
Small cars can be a good buy if you have a tight budget, but they can also lack the necessary safety features for optimal safety. However, safety is one of the Chevrolet Spark’s biggest priorities. The Chevrolet Spark, which remains one of South Africa’s most affordable vehicles, highlights safety features as some of its most important aspects. All derivatives in the Spark range, which consists of six versions, feature a minimum of two airbags, along with ABS and EBD, as standard.
Spark safety credentials are important on a global level, where in the United States the Chevrolet Spark was awarded the Top Safety Pick accolade from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) earlier in 2014 – the only supermini to achieve the award thanks to an Acceptable rating in the Institute’s small overlap crash test. Airbags aside, the Spark’s body construction, which includes strategic crumple zones and impact protection beams, contributed to the high rating.
The Chevrolet Spark’s safety credentials were also highlighted in the South African context in 2014, when an accident involving two pensioners in the Eastern Cape saw their Spark subjected to a high-speed impact. Both occupants walked away from the accident with only slight bruising, the driver – 69-year-old Denise Westgate – having remarked at how her vehicle’s ABS and EBD allowed for control to be maintained and that the structural integrity of the body allowed for a safe and easy exit once the vehicle had stopped moving. Westgate went on to replace her vehicle with another Spark.