Chevrolet’s Cheap Minicar, the Spark, Is a Surprisingly Strong Seller

The Spark, made in South Korea, seats four, has room for groceries — and starts at $12,170, significantly less than the Fiat 500’s starting price of $16,100. It’s also inexpensive to run, getting about 35 miles to the gallon.

In July, sales of the Spark increased 163 percent over the previous year, its introductory month, to a record 3,847, showing that a stripped-down minicar can succeed in a market crowded with costlier rivals like the Fiat 500 that have more features and technology. Its July sales outpaced the Fiat 500’s 2,821, which was a 24 percent decline from a year earlier. Through July this year, Spark sales were 21,435, behind only the Fiat 500’s 23,892 among minicars.

“To me, it’s an appliance,” said William Wortman of Ohio City near Cleveland, who in April bought a Spark with manual transmission for his weekly 250-mile commute to his job as a toolmaker. The Spark’s 1.2-liter, four-cylinder engine makes it the smallest in the Chevrolet lineup.

“It gets me back and forth,” he said. “All I wanted was a radio.”

Even G.M. did not expect it would resonate this way with consumers. “We’re very surprised with how well the vehicle has been selling,” said Cristi Landy, Chevrolet marketing director.

Beyond its cost, what separates the Spark, buyers say, is that it’s the only minicar sold in the United States with four doors.

“The ability to get four adults in a minicar like that is what sells the vehicle,” said Andy Lilienthal, of Portland, Ore., who has run a blog on small cars, called Subcompact Culture, since 2008.

G.M.’s decision to market a minicar like the Spark was a logical one, analysts said. With gasoline routinely topping $4 a gallon, many Americans are seeking better mileage. But automakers also need to make their fleets more efficient to meet strict new federal fuel economy standards that take effect in 2016, said Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst for Edmunds.com.

“Everybody’s going in that direction,” Ms. Krebs said, “but no one expected G.M. to do it as well as they have.”

More broadly, minicars and subcompacts, which like the Chevrolet Sonic are slightly bigger, now make up 5.9 percent of overall vehicle sales, according to Edmunds.com. That is compared with 3.1 percent in 2007.

For the automakers, smaller cars have become a profitable niche in an area where they have often been outdone against foreign competition.

“There was skepticism in general that Detroit could not make small cars and compete with the Japanese market, but we’re over that,” Ms. Krebs said.

Beyond better fuel economy and cost savings, the styling and technology are helping change the perception of cars like the Spark, known as “penalty boxes” in the 1980s, implying that the driver was being punished for not affording a larger car. In the 1980s and ’90s, junkyards across America quickly became littered with duds like the Yugo GV, Daihatsu Charade and Geo Metro.

“You were basically buying these slow, underpowered vehicles with the only advantage being that they were cheap,” Mr. Lilienthal said.

The Spark and its competitors, including the best-selling Nissan Versa subcompact and No. 2 Kia Soul — which are slightly bigger and have four doors but cost about the same — come with features that were never included in subcompact cars, from air conditioning and power locks to Bluetooth and smartphone navigation.

Now, buyers ask themselves, “Do I need to buy a full-size sedan, or can I get away with a Nissan Versa?” Mr. Lilienthal said.

Automakers have also taken a different tack in marketing the cars, promoting them as fun to drive and easy to maneuver around the city, as well as the cost advantage.

Stocks Lose Their Spark

Stocks on Wall Street rose Monday at the start of a new quarter after data showed strength in the American manufacturing sector, but a broad rally lost some fizzle late in the day.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 0.3 percent by the close, and the Dow Jones industrial average was ahead 0.6 percent. But declines in technology stocks helped pull the Nasdaq composite index down 0.1 percent.

The indexes trimmed their gains somewhat after Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, in a speech in Indianapolis, delivered a broad defense of the Fed’s bond-buying stimulus plan, saying it was necessary to support a flagging economic recovery.

Mr. Bernanke pushed back against accusations that the Fed’s policy is laying the groundwork for inflation, enabling the government to run large budget deficits, undercutting the dollar and hurting savers.

Earlier, the Institute for Supply Management said its index of national factory activity rose to 51.5 from 49.6 in August, topping expectations for 49.7, according to a Reuters poll.

It was the first time since May that the index has been above the 50 threshold that indicates expansion in the sector.

The Markit Manufacturing index, however, fell to 51.1 points in September from 51.5 in August, and averaged 51.4 in the third quarter. Both the monthly and quarterly readings were the lowest in three years. Still, a reading above 50 indicates expansion.

Euro zone manufacturing put in its worst performance in the three months to September while Asia’s manufacturers are continuing to struggle in the face of tepid demand from the United States and Europe, flagging a return to recession for the euro zone and a seventh straight quarter of slowing growth in China, business surveys showed.

But European markets gained, with stock indexes up more than 1 percent. The DAX in Frankfurt finished 1.5 percent and the CAC 40 in Paris added 2.4 percent. The FTSE 100 in London rose 1.4 percent.

Equity markets were being supported by expectations of support from central banks, including the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, which are offsetting weak data, according to Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in New York.

“The market focuses more on future results than on what’s happening today,” he said.

Wall Street finished lower on Friday but recorded its best third quarter since 2010 after a series of central bank actions sparked a bullish reversal in equity markets, but signs of weakness in the economy drove stocks lower for the week.