Auto News 5

For the last time: the Chevrolet Volt is not a product of General Motors' government bailout. It was conceived in 2007, when George W. Bush was still president, and was well under development by the time a banking crisis and thirty years of mismanagement caught up with old corporation. The Chevrolet Spark? Well, that seems like a different story. Although the minicar also debuted in concept form in 2007, then-vice-chairman Bob Lutz quickly dismissed the notion of actually selling it in the United States. It was only two years later, as GM geared up for intense negotiations with Barack Obama's incoming administration, that a bound-for-U.S.A. Spark resurfaced at the Detroit auto show to prove that the company was serious about producing small, efficient cars. With the Americanized Spark due to arrive in dealerships late this summer -- the heart of campaign season -- we decided it was time to find out whether the Spark brings change we can believe in or is the harbinger of a socialist apocalypse.