I started having an intermittent slipping of the transmission the end of August. I took my 2014 Chevrolet Spark to an auto mechanic. The result of that visit was: the diagnostic showed a problem with the Pressure Control Solenoid in the transmission. That auto shop did not repair transmissions. I called EVERY transmission shop in Fort Wayne, IN only to find out, NOBODY works on the Continuously Variable Transmission!! Well, EXCEPT for the dealership.

I took my car to the local Chevrolet dealership and the mechanic ran the diagnostic. The result of that was: the belt inside the CVT is bad, needing a whole new transmission. What is so annoying is this: my power-train warranty just expired!!! Mind you, I have a little under 58k miles on my car. I did all the maintenance as I was supposed to. Now, I have to get a whole new transmission that I really can not afford ($4,120.00) just so I can go to work every day!

Our car has always had some weird issues. It has absolutely no 'get up and go' when you are trying to get up a hill or make a turn from a stop, but I was always told that was just the car. Every so often when you are stopped and try to go forward it REFUSES you push the gas and NOTHING happens. We told the dealer but since they couldn't recreate it they said "if it gets worse let us know" (maybe only happens once a month or so). But a few weeks ago while driving we noticed that when accelerating the it would 'skip' a beat. (For a split second it would feel like the vehicle paused and then caught and jump forward slightly). When the weather got warmer we finally heard a 'squeal' that proceeded the 'skip' by a split second.

We took it to the dealer and they drove it but didn't notice it. Again they said if it got worse to come back. We started to watch the car closely and realized that the 'skip' only happened when going up hill. Within a week the 'skip went from only happening going 50+mph up hill to happening at all speeds (20+mph) on even the slightest incline. We took the car back to the dealer and they FINALLY 'felt' it. They are currently searching for a transmission to do a complete replacement. They are having difficulty finding a replacement transmission for my car.

I have heard from 2 other Spark owners in my area that they had the EXACT same problem and had to have their transmission fixed. This is NOT a rare occurrence, apparently this is a big issue for the 2014 Sparks.

Problem started several weeks before getting it to the dealer. At highway speeds and between 2k and 2.5k rpms the transmission would start surging. Rpms would jump between 2 and 3k. Dropped it into neutral and engine would race which ruled out an engine problem. On the day I got it to the dealer I had to limp it in at 40 mph because even with the gas floored it would only go 40. Dropped it off saying the transmission was shot. No offer of a loaner. Had to rent a car.

By Friday I had still heard nothing so called the dealer and was told a tech looked at it and pulled the codes and the transmission was bad, but their transmission gut was backed up. Today, 11 days later, I get a call that the transmission needs to be replaced and it will maybe be ready the middle of next week. So now I am out over a grand in rental car fees ($90 a day) so far with no exact time on when it will be ready. Will never take my car to this dealership again.

Similar problem that others have reported. Driving down the highway and hear a belt chirp accompanied with a spike in RPMs. I have about a 30 mile commute one way and it would start doing it a few miles into the trip and keep doing it until I got off the highway. I heard this noise plenty of times since I had the car, but at 55,000 miles it just got progressively worse. It started out as a rare occurrence. Then at about 55,000 miles you could pretty much guarantee it would happen at least once per trip. Then by 57,000 miles it was doing it multiple times all the way home.

It mostly occurred in the 2-3K RPM area. I would just try to keep it at 70 miles per hour which put me in that RPM range. And it would do it over and over.

If I gave it some gas and got above 3K RPM then the problem seemed to not occur. I can't maintain those RPMs for very long because it causes me to go too far over the speed limit. So I ended up cranking up the RPMS to get me to 75 Mph. Once I got there I just let off the gas and let my speed drop back to 65. Then I would crank it up again over 3K RPMS again and get up to 75 Mph. Then let off the gas and get back to 65...etc. This was like a juggling act for half of my commute. I found myself looking at the speedometer and tachometer more than I was looking at the road.

I made an appointment and took it to the dealership. Of course they are unable to recreate the problem. I also went for a drive with a technician and it wouldn't do it.

They were persistent though, and took it out again and drove it long enough to recreate the problem.

The transmission is getting replaced. It is still being worked on. I have a loaner car from the dealer. This dealership has been good so far in taking care of me and the car. I called today to check on the status of the car. The transmission is on back order. They are having to buy one from another dealer. It is going to be another week before it is ready.

I am getting rid of this car as soon as I can. I need this new transmission to last until I pay off the car, and then it is gone.

Fall 2016, my Spark started slipping, while driving on the interstate. Was scared the transmission was going to fail while I was going 70mph. The slipping stopped, but started back a couple days later. Called the dealership and got it in for a diagnostic. They tried saying there wasn't anything wrong with it. That what we were describing wasn't happening. We asked them to do a ride along with us and instead they had a tech get in the car and he then came back and said the transmission was bad.

Chevy replaced the entire transmission... took two weeks for the transmission to get to the shop... and it was delivered broken! Another two weeks for another transmission and they were able to put it in the car. After almost two months of my car being in the shop I had it back and back driving.

The car still didn't feel right, the car started to slip again, but it wasn't as often as before. We took the car back in to have them run a diagnostic right before our 100,000 mile power train warranty was to expire. They told us the engine was misfiring due to a spark plug failure. We changed the spark plugs, and the issue continued. We took the car to another mechanic to get a second opinion and they said the engine was misfiring due to a blown head gasket, not a spark plug... Called Chevy Customer Service to complain about what had happened, they opened a case. We took the car back to a chevy dealer service to have it diagnosed and it took them almost two months to diagnose and tell us what GM was going to do for us. Because of Chevy's mistake of misdiagnosing, Chevy is going to pay $800 to fix the head gasket which costs $1,200 to fix... It would have been covered fully under the power train warranty had it been diagnosed when first taken in.

This Chevy Spark has many problems and I am finding multiple people with the same Transmission and Engine problems. It's time for Chevy to stand up and handle this issue before they lose multiple loyal customers like myself.

So I have a 2014 Chevy Spark for a loaner while my car is being fixed. About 10 miles after leaving dealership the car did not shift out of 1st gear until I let off the gas. Then on my 250 mile trip home, about every stop when accelerating the trans would slip and pull when taking off. TERRIBLE ! Good thing I wait until it's clear to pull out or someone might have hit me. It felt like car had no power and confused what gear it was in and just slipped until it slips to something and begins to go. It did this regardless of me shutting it off or not. OF COURSE there's no dip stick to check the TRANS Fluid but instead you must have the car serviced too. THEN about halfway into my trip the car, when I would let off the gas, would keep about 2300 RPM and drag the motor ( almost as to not disengage the Trans, maybe auto clutch issue. Maybe same with accl. ) and it would slow me down and feel the drag on the motor. THEN my final leg of my journey to my house the car was loosing all power up hills. The Transmission would rev the RPM up to about 4500- jump up to 5000 then kick right back down ! I could not accelerate to climb the hill. UNBELIEVABLE !! Way to go GM.

My Opinion when you went bankrupt that should have been a CLEAR sign to just give up....instead now you get Sparks and Sparks engines/trans from Korea ! BEWARE this car ! Just my opinion but this should not be happening to a new car when my 1989 Buick Park Avenue Leaked trans cooling line for 7 years and still turned 221000 MILES ! What's is the deal with these NEW GM VEHICLES???

When I got this car, I was desperate and needed something cheap and reliable that could help me get through at least one year without the unexpected "used" car repairs. Blown head gasket, bad transmission, hard to trouble shoot wiring or computer issues....that kind of thing. When I was approved for a brand new spark, I thought my dream had come true.....I was so wrong. When I first got it, thought it had some form of slipping occurring. As a collage graduate for automotive technology, my experiences with bad transmissions was fairly accurate, however I had been out of the field for so long that I never had any sort of training on a CVT style transmissions and since this car does have one, I was constantly blaming myself instead of the transmission. The dealership agreed. Roughly at 50,000 miles however, it was very obvious that the problem was not me. Finally one night, it went into "limp in" mode and locked the transmission into high gear. If your on a freeway or are just driving down the road, it will make it to the shop slowly but surely. However I got the lucky end of the straw to have a few stops along the way. I must say, trying to push the car up to a speed as to allow it to take off was rather rough.

Got the car into the shop, and they tossed the fact that I have subwoofers into my lap and that this may have cause a resetting of the factory computer specifications. So right off the bat, it seemed it was all my fault. However I knew better and let them do as they wished. After it was done, I was sent on a test drive. It failed, luckily it failed in the best way possible. When I returned, the age old screaming metal on metal could be heard all around and in fact the parts guy asking me what that noise was just added fuel to the fire. After clearing my throat on the matter, it was looked at much more professionally. However of all the times for this to happen, this had to be the worst. All of the HHR recalls had taken all of the courtesy vehicles out of the dealership, and enterprise mandates that someone who uses their cars must have a major credit card, even if the warranty providers are to take care of any and all costs. I do not have a major credit card.

Without a car, without a loaner, I went for 3 straight weeks literally borrowing one vehicle from family, after another. I also went from spending $10 a night in fuel, to $35.....Just waiting for my car to be fixed, cost me roughly $500 just in fuel expenditures! Not to mention I had to get my grandfathers jimmy in my name, up and legit on the last week or I would have lost my job.

Supposedly everything I waited for to get fixed, actually took roughly 5 hours to get done. The 3 weeks it took to get it fixed, was waiting for a GM techy to give the approval to do it...I still do not know why I had to wait that long, just to get someone else's approval. The transmission was obviously junk, even the service guy said that it was well and done at that point, but the fact that I spent three weeks on someone's yea or nay seems rather odd. Could they have neglected their warranty on a car that was roughly half way into its coverage?

Update from Apr 24, 2015: After the transmission was replaced, all seemed good and fair, ran like a champ and was shifting with ease.....until mile marker 75,000.

ITS BACK TO SLIPPING AGAIN!!!

That's right ladies and gentlemen, the brand new, off the factory shelf, Korean made CVT, is junk in less than 25,000 miles! 3rd gear is on its way out the door and in an attempt to do whatever I can to keep it alive, have opted for cruise control at almost all times. In the city, highway, wherever I'm at. I am trying to keep it in the highest gear possible to avoid destroying the inevitable 3rd gear. Thanks Chevrolet, only one year old, less than your 100,000 mile warranty and I feel like I own a used ford again.

It is in my personal opinion that either the, 1.) Design is bad. 2.) parts are not of high quality. Or 3.) fluid is not cooled correctly and hydraulic pressure is not high enough.

Waiting to see if there will be a number 3 transmission on warranty or if they will try to blame it me again. Apparently those 10 in subwoofers are transmission eaters.

Update from May 5, 2015: Apparently they are blaming it on a "bent transmission pan" from an animal strike....No dents in the cast aluminum pan that would have caused an issue. However after said statement and waiting for an approval again, I wound up hitting a deer, and it pretty much didn't matter. Supposedly the insurance will be takeing care of it...wonder if it will be a new or used tranny....