2016 Chevrolet Spark
This year drew an ordinary 42 complaints for a Chevrolet Spark — the model's median is 19. What they were about is the unusual part: 42.9% of them mention brake, against 6.9% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 42 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 19 |
| Involving a crash | 3 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| EPA combined | 33.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- brake — 42.9% of this year's complaints, against 6.9% across the model's other years (6.2×).
- brakes — 40.5% of this year's complaints, against 5.7% across the model's other years (7.1×).
- warning — 45.2% of this year's complaints, against 16% across the model's other years (2.8×).
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
THE BRAKES FAILED WHILE IN MOTION ON A CITY STREET. PRECEDING THE BRAKE FAILURE THERE A WARNING FLASHED STATING TO "SERVICE THE STABILITRAC" AND "SERVICE BRAKE ASSIST." IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS THE BRAKE PEDAL WENT TO THE FLOOR AND WE WERE UNABLE TO STOP.
WHILE BEING OPERATED AT A LOW SPEED, THE BRAKES MADE AN ABNORMAL NOISE WITHOUT WARNING. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO CLASSIC CHEVROLET (LOCATED AT 1101 W STATE HIGHWAY 114, GRAPEVINE, TX) WHERE IT WAS DIAGNOSED THAT THE BRAKES NEEDED TO BE ADJUSTED AND THE BRAKE W…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 17V307000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Chevrolet Spark was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2016 Chevrolet Spark? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…