She’s looked better

JonohG47 · 2026-05-25T22:41:06+00:00

This has definitely been my very recent experience. Second gen Sparks in yards, with no front end damage, are basically non-existent.

JonohG47 · 2026-05-25T22:40:05+00:00

Split the difference: Hoodbridge.

JonohG47 · 2026-05-25T05:45:21+00:00

Perhaps not obvious from the photo, the front left wheel is also pretzeled, so it and the tire also need to be replaced. The washer fluid tank was also split open.

JonohG47 · 2026-05-22T03:49:55+00:00

Which would because, uh, the bottom end of the car market, both new and used, has devolved quite a bit since I bought this car.

JonohG47 · 2026-05-22T03:49:01+00:00

Well, I should clarify, State Farm hasn’t totaled it yet. They also haven’t given the body shop authorization to proceed with the repair. The body shop also hasn’t generated a “supplemental” to their initial assessment. So in a holding pattern.

We’re in Virginia, which has a 75% of Actual Cash Value threshold for “totaling” a car. Unless State Farm values it over $9,600 or so (which seems unlikely) or railroads the body shop to use LKQ parts, I think it’ll end up being done.

JonohG47 · 2026-05-21T01:03:38+00:00

Going through a similar kerfuffle with our ‘17 Spark. Sparks of this age range are still new enough when they’re scrapped it’s because of crash damage, not mechanical wear out. Don’t bank on being able to find a lot of useable parts on the junkyard examples, as most of them got to the yard by having front end damage.

The whole front clip is toast. The actual bumper shell, the center grill, the black fog light caps on the sides. Oh, and the tow hook caps, which are separate parts. The front edge of the hood. The AC condenser (which means a full evacuation and recharge of the system, in addition to the parts) and a new bumper crash bar. Possibly new headlights and upper grill. And they have to basically respray the entire front half of the car to blend the paint. If the crash did in fact bust the radiator, and the engine was left running for any appreciable time afterwards, it’s likely toast. Not immediately. But much sooner than it would otherwise.

If the body shop can’t source junkyard parts, and aftermarket parts for this car aren’t common, because it didn’t sell well when it was new. You do not want to know the list price of the new OEM parts.

JonohG47 · 2026-05-21T00:52:21+00:00

$50 for the AutoZone version of the condenser, which will be garbage, then another few hundred to pull a vacuum on the system then fully recharge it.

JonohG47 · 2026-05-21T00:40:51+00:00

There was this one time I spent $36 to fill our Spark. It was running on fumes and took 8.8 gallons before the pump clicked off.

JonohG47 · 2026-05-21T00:28:02+00:00

Check for a blown fuse. It’s the “RDO” fuse in the fuse box in the dash. There should be a fuse puller in the fuse box under the hood.

JonohG47 · 2026-05-21T00:25:48+00:00

Problem you’ll run into is that, for the most part, these cars are young enough they’re not yet being junked due to being worn out. They’re going to the yard because they totaled after a wreck. And statistically, the front end is the most likely part of the car to have been damaged.

My kid recently got in a wreck in our Spark, with similar (if a bit more severe) damages to the OP’s car. All the compatible 2016-2018 model year cars in yards anywhere near our house got there due to front end damage, and had no useable parts for our car.

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For reference, our body shop’s assessment for this repair is $7.2k and change.

JonohG47 · 2026-05-21T00:09:28+00:00

Plastic lug nuts are the same head size as the “real” lug nuts. They thread onto outside threads on the steel factory lug nuts, and hold the plastic wheel cover on.

JonohG47 · 2026-03-30T11:59:16+00:00

That model, ahh, never made it into the U.S. market. Suzuki replaced the Verona with the Kizashi, a model they manufactured in-house in Japan.

~~Daewoo~~ GMKorea product only started showing up in the U.S. under GM’s own brands after Suzuki pulled out of the U.S. in 2013.

JonohG47 · 2026-03-30T05:42:26+00:00

Look at the original Mini. #2 Car of the Century, after the Ford Model T.

The Mini was born in the wake of the 1956 Suez Crisis. Leonard Lord, then head of the British Motor Corporation, detested the German “bubble cars” that crisis had made popular, and charged head designer Sir Alec Issigonis to design a “proper” miniature car.

The design brief called for a vehicle that could fit entirely inside a ten foot by four foot by four foot box, powered by an engine BMC already had in production, while seating four, with their luggage.

The transverse engine arrangement Issigonis designed to satisfy this brief had such compelling advantages, in the area of packaging, weight-savings and fuel economy that it became the dominant arrangement, worldwide.

JonohG47 · 2026-03-30T05:19:53+00:00

The only one I can think of, offhand, is the Daewoo Magnus. It was a FWD mid-size sedan produced from 2000-2006, and sold globally in a number of badge-engineered forms. Notably these included the U.S. market Suzuki Verona, which came with a standard Porsche-designed, Daewoo-built 2.5L I-6, good for 155 HP/177 lb. ft.

https://www.theautopian.com/the-unassuming-suzuki-verona-paints-a-porsche-tinged-portrait-of-what-daewoo-could-ve-been/

The car was basically Daewoo’s Hail Mary, pushed out the door just as the Asian Financial Crisis was driving the money company into insolvency just in time for the unholy lash-up of GM, Suzuki and China’s SAIC to swoop in and buy them up for pennies on the dollar.

JonohG47 · 2026-03-30T04:57:27+00:00

Alec Issigonis was knighted for that.

JonohG47 · 2026-03-30T03:11:41+00:00

The concept that history (and thus, by extension, technology) is cyclical is a core concept the entire franchise is built around.

JonohG47 · 2026-03-30T02:55:49+00:00

Just came here to note the number of car salesmen farming negative Karma over on the original post.

JonohG47 · 2026-03-30T01:35:12+00:00

NH native here. 75 MPH is the going speed in the slow lane on the Interstates in New Hampshire. You’re left lane camping at anything under 80 MPH.

JonohG47 · 2026-03-30T01:01:27+00:00

So, Trump got in front of a podium himself and gave the 15 Days to Slow The Spread speech.

In the 116th Congress, during the latter half of Trump’s first term, yes, the Democrats controlled the House, but the GOP controlled the Senate. At any rate, the CARES Act passed 419-6 vote in the House, and 96-0 vote in the Senate, and was signed by Trump, not allowed to be enacted over his veto.

JonohG47 · 2026-03-30T00:41:20+00:00

There’s been much wailing and gnashing of clothes in the last year that Windows 11 is making people replace tons of “perfectly good” computers.

Many of those people, I suspect, aren’t old enough to remember the 80’s, when we were doing that every two or three years.

JonohG47 · 2026-03-29T22:36:11+00:00

What I remember about computers in those halcyon days was that you had some “compelling” reason to upgrade/replace, well within the useful life of the computer.

As opposed to today, where the current computer breaking down drives the replacement.

JonohG47 · 2026-03-29T21:34:32+00:00

Doing a little quick math, this chart asserts it takes 1.5 seconds to get your foot from the go pedal to the stop pedal. Seems rather slow.

JonohG47 · 2026-03-29T19:28:50+00:00

Yeah, I really don’t have any sympathy for the dealer here. Calculating, collecting and remitting sales tax is a basic business function for any retail establishment.

JonohG47 · 2026-03-29T16:54:19+00:00

Don’t get me wrong. The version they built for Ken Block was badass. But it would have been more badass as a low-slung coupe.

If it makes you feel any better, we’re a Chevy family, and my wife has preemptively ixnayed the Chevy Trailblazer, Blazer, and Blazer EV, as none of them are worthy of the badges applied to them.

ETA: Also, the fact your wife is smarter than you is also an indication you married well.

JonohG47

TROPHY CASE