2010-2015 Holden Barina Spark used car review
It’s hard to know why, but clearly some car-makers think that to qualify as a city car, the vehicle in question has to look dinky. In fact, when you come face to face with the Holden Barina Spark, dinky is quite a compliment.
Okay, so the tiny footprint demands that the cabin be somewhat tall and upright, but must the finished product look like something aquatic from a Japanese comic-book? After all, other makers of small cars get it right; the Fiat 500 and Ford Fiesta to name just two.
Of course, you can make up your own mind about the Barina Spark and whether you reckon you’d be seen dead driving it. But it’s a fair bet that a majority of younger males wouldn’t, so effectively Holden cut its target market right down the middle before anybody had even sat in the thing.
You also need to remember that the Barina Spark was a global car for General Motors, so restyling the thing for local tastes on a market-by-market basis was out of the question. In fact, it was the replacement for the entirely forgettable Daewoo Matiz, was made in South Korea and was sold globally (in as many as 150 markets) as the Spark. Holden added the Barina tag to gain a bit more cut-through with local buyers who remembered previous Barinas quite fondly.
Anyway, if you can live with the looks, then the pay-off is in decent accommodation that even runs to a back seat with more-than-expected legroom. You probably still wouldn’t put adults in it for a long journey, but it’s fine for smaller folk. The flip-side is that the luggage space was pretty minimal.
But what is it, exactly?
Well, if you took the Barina that sold alongside the Spark, and sliced almost 450mm from its length and 150mm out of its wheelbase, you were getting close.
Power came from a 1.2-litre petrol four-cylinder engine which produced 59kW and 107NM of torque. The catch is that you had to rev the thing pretty hard to achieve those numbers and, in the process, you took the engine way beyond its comfort zone. At which point it started to get harsh and noisy.
Oh, and there was no automatic transmission version, reflecting the fact that many overseas markets are quite happy to change their own gears in a city car like this. In Australia, however, we generally are not prepared to do the same, so the target market shrunk again. And even with a five-speed manual to stir it along, the Spark never really felt anything other than gutless. At highway speeds, that situation was made even worse.
The ride quality was far from perfect either, and while a car with such a small footprint will usually struggle in this department, later designs like the (simply called) Spark that replaced it in 2015 and the latest Kia Picanto do a much better job.
Holden offered the Barina Spark in CD and CDX trim levels, but whichever way you go, you’ll be greeted by lots of hard, brittle looking plastic interior parts.
Although the Barina Spark had six airbags and electronic stability-control, it rates as a four-out-of-five-star car for crash safety. European testing of the model suggested leg and chest protection for front seat occupants was marginal; an important distinction for a car aimed at younger drivers.
Holden finally got the hint in early 2013 and made an automatic transmission available.
That was the good news; the bad news was that the auto was but a four-speed and did less than nothing for the car’s already meagre acceleration.
The CDX trim level was dropped at the same time, making the CD the only game in town, but at least if you ordered the automatic transmission, you also got Bluetooth connectivity.
It’s fair to say that Daewoo quality and reliability trails that of the other two major South Korean brands, Hyundai and Kia. So there’s a bit to watch out for when shopping for a second-hand Barina Spark.
The first is, naturally, that the previous owner has serviced the car properly. Too often, we see evidence of cheap cars being bought by cheap owners who think they can skip oil changes and routine preventative maintenance. In fact, the opposite is true of cars like this with their hard-working little engines that demand fresh, clean oil on a regular basis.
Cars aimed at younger drivers are also more likely to have been involved in some biffo at some stage. So make sure the body panels all line up and that there’s no damage to the big plastic bumpers which have to be replaced as an assembly if they’ve had a big enough knock. And make sure the paint – particularly that bright metallic green that was so popular – is still shiny and appears to be all one colour across the whole car.
The Barina Spark was also subject to a few recalls, and at least a couple of them dealt with serious safety issues.
Those started with a recall to check a crucial fastener in the front end which Holden believed may have been incorrectly torqued at the factory. Essentially, the fastener in question joined the suspension to the wheel-hub and, if it failed, so would the car’s steering.
The second of the Spark’s recalls was to inspect the cross-member under the vehicle that supported the gearbox. In some cases, this member could fail, leaving the transmission unsupported with all sorts of potential results, many of them to do with control of the vehicle.
A third recall was to check the condition of the clutch pedal. In some cases, Holden found the clutch pedal was adjusted too far off the floor, leading to high levels of stress on the pedal when it was depressed by the driver. In the worst-case scenario, the pedal could snap off completely.
Our rating: 2/5
Nuts and bolts
Engine/s: 1.2 4-cyl
Transmissions: 5-man
Fuel economy (combined): 5.5 litres per 100km
Safety rating (courtesy of www.howsafeisyourcar.com.au): 4 stars
Likes:
Looks different, for sure.
Decent rear-seat room.
Cheap to buy.
Great on fuel.
Dislikes:
Plasticky interior is nasty.
Lack of performance.
Steering and cornering off the pace.
No automatic option until 2013 models.
Competitors:
Toyota Echo – Well made and a good bet for younger drivers thanks to five-star safety rating from 2012 on. Reliability is typical-for-Toyota brilliant and will be easy to trade-in when the time comes. 3.5/5
Mazda2 – Another well-made city car but one that drives and rides like it’s a size bigger. Relatively large engine works better with optional automatic and current shape gets five safety stars. 4/5
Volkswagen Polo – A classy drive and lovely packaging. But durability concerns over DSG transmission cloud the picture. Good safety credentials make the Polo worth a look, especially if you’re after a manual. 3/5
What to pay (courtesy of Glass’s Guide):
Model Year New Now
CD 2010 $12,490 $3000
CDX 2010 $13,990 $3600
CD 2011 $12,490 $3700
CDX 2011 $14,490 $4200
CD 2012 $12,490 $4100
CDX 2012 $14,490 $5000
CD 2013 $12,490 $4400
CD 2014 $12,890 $6300
CD 2015 $12,890 $6700