Times of spending some or all of my weekly allowance on candy are among my happiest childhood memories. This was true up until one year when I had earned a boatload of cavities for which to account at the dentist’s office, which required two separate trips to have all of them drilled and filled. That was a lesson learned, but all of that unpleasantness couldn’t completely eliminate my sweet tooth.
Then as now, I was focused on getting the best bang for the buck, or at least some sort of unique experience or added value if I was going to get more than just a handful of Now And Laters flavored taffies. Sometimes on special occasions, a new Pez candy dispenser would find itself in my possession as part of an Easter basket or treat my dad had picked up for us kids while he was traveling.
Pez was in its own class where candy was concerned. It wasn’t just the candies themselves which, though tart, flavorful, and delicious, weren’t especially unique compared to SweetTarts or even Smarties. It was the wide assortment of cartoon- and novelty-themed plastic dispensers and variety of flavors that made (and continues to make) Pez such a unique and satisfying experience.
There was nothing super scientific or high-quality to the dispensers. There’s a simple, low-grade plastic body, an inner sleeve that holds the little candy wafers, a head that resembles one of your favorite cartoon characters or action figures, and a spring. That’s basically it. Genius. It’s cheap, cheerful, and individualized enough to make a kid feel special for receiving a new one. It’s not built to last, but who cares? It’s like getting both candy and something that’s sort of like a toy at the same time.
Twelve years ago, I rented a brand new 2013 Chevy Spark (pictured above) to drive back home to Flint, Michigan for a gathering with some of my fellow high school alumni. Its metallic lilac color was called “Techno Pink” in the sales brochures, and at the time, this particular car had been driven by only one other person before me. Like a new Pez dispenser, it was candy colored and sort of like a toy at the same time. I remember my thought process being that this Spark was so tiny that it would just have to have the best fuel economy of any car of all time.
This turned out not to be the case, with real-world miles per gallon very similar to what I’ve gotten in a significantly larger Chevy Cruze. It was summer, so I had the air conditioning blasting non-stop. I found myself flooring the accelerator often on the expressway while trying to wring the most out of the car’s 84-horsepower, 1.2 liter four-cylinder engine that was mated to a four-speed automatic.
Before I had sat down to write this, I had walked to a local vintage candy shop to purchase this new Bugs Bunny (one of my childhood heroes!) Pez dispenser. When I got it home, I had forgotten that there’s an art to loading one of these things gracefully and effectively. Believe me, this motor memory skill did not come back to me “like riding a bike”, but I managed to get the job done without touching every, single wafer. Successful execution of this operation takes order and precision.
With the rear seats up, it takes a similar kind of skill with geometry to fit more than a few items into the Spark’s 11.4 cubic feet of luggage space behind its upright hatch, though it has a very respectable 31.2 cubic feet with the rear seats down. I didn’t have any problems stowing my carry-on bag and backpack in the luggage compartment of the example I had rented. I was driving to a GM town and had asked the rental agency for a GM-branded car, and they did give me a Chevrolet…-branded Daewoo. Which was fine.
This example in factory “Lemonade” pastel yellow was parked in my neighborhood last month, and it immediately made me remember having rolled up to my class reunion in the tiniest car possible. Like my rental, this Spark was also the color of candy, being literally the color of lemon Pez. These cars were built in a bunch of GM factories around the world, but per a license plate search, our featured car originated in GM’s Changwon plant in South Korea. It’s powered by the same 1.2L four-cylinder as the car I had rented, but it has the then-introduced CVT transmission. This generation of Spark, its third worldwide, was sold in the U.S. for three model years starting in 2013 before the next generation arrived for ’16.
One significant contrast I discovered in my metaphor for the Spark as a rolling Pez dispenser was that, unlike Pez, the Spark did not sell like crazy. They sold well enough in the States, but the 39,200 units moved here during 2014 seems like far less volume relative to what Pez does annually (with worldwide annual sales estimated at a whopping 70 million dispensers and five billion candies). Sales of the 2013 Spark were around 26,900 units for its first twelve months, so with 32,900 units sold for 2015, the ’14 model was the most plentiful.
Renting that Spark was a nice enough experience over a decade ago, and I’m sure there are many great things about them, especially for city-dwellers who have to parallel park on the street. I have to smile every time I see a Spark of this generation, as they remind me of the weekend I had spent behind the wheel of the most candy-colored, toy-like car I had ever driven, before or since. With its tiny size and quirky styling, that Spark dispensed basic transportation with a Pez-like sense of novelty, becoming the stuff of lore in the process.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Friday, August 9, 2024.
I can’t comment on this car, other than to say I’m sure it is a fine city runabout, but one of the funniest Seinfeld episodes featured a Pez dispenser.
Being from Australia, I had never heard of Pez before watching the show, but I am pleased to know you have confirmed what was said in the show, that they are tricky to load.
Elaine Benes is one of my favorite TV characters of all time. And poor George. “But, I’ve got hand!…”
Actually, I live in the US and I’d never heard of Pez until I was a young adult. I don’t know if it just wasn’t popular where or grew up, or because I didn’t pay attention to it since I was never much into sweets, but somehow this trend completely passed me by.
Me too! I never understood what the fuss was about. My kids would occasionally buy a package, but then the dispenser would sit around until it got pitched.
I still have one of these. 2013 LS model in black. Everything you said is spot on except for one thing. The 2013 Spark came with an Aisin sourced 4 speed conventional automatic tranny. The CVT came in 2014.
Thank you! Oh, wow – I’m so embarrassed. LOL Honestly, the car had me fooled. I’ll fix it – I appreciate the correction.
4 speed auto (2013 only), CVT (2014-5), 5 speed manual (all years) or full EV (2014-16, staying on the old body as a stopgap until the Bolt was ready for launch).
I’m quite the Pez fan too, although I was more about the candy than the dispensers; the best bang for my allowance-money buck was the 6-, 8-, or 10-pack without a dispenser rather than a dispenser with only about 3 rolls of candy included.
The car/Pez dispenser connection thing has already been done incidentally, though these things were even rarer than the Spark. Not surprising; it was a sport utility vehicle without the utility.
!!! I don’t recall ever having seen this amazing commercial. It is the most ’90s thing I think I’ve seen all summer. (I was in college without a TV at the time the X-90 was new.)
I like the Pez candies as I mentioned, but without even an old dispenser around, no dice.
Just another terrific CC article on a car that fits the profile. I liked the diminutive Spark, particularly the EV variant. The huge headlight ‘startled squirrel’ look was quite unique, if not particularly aesthetically pleasing. I don’t know if there’s another vehicle whose headlights were nearly as large as the front fenders. I’m not sure it would be so great on a long road-trip, but for urban use, it was just fine.
And then there’s the 2014-16 Spark EV. Not exactly great with a low, 82-mile range and a slow 3.3kW onboard charger, it would be another CC candidate, and was at least followed by the much better Chevy Bolt.
For some reason, I have an affinity for these early, sub-100-mile range EVs like the first Nissan Leaf, Spark EV, Fiat 500e and (especially) the truly quirky Mitsubishi i-MiEV.
Thank you, Rudiger. About the Spark’s looks, it’s an interesting counterpoint to the AMC Pacer I featured in last Tuesday’s essay. The Spark looks almost as unconventional, but I’m sure it will never be vilified by some the way the Pacer continues to be, even today.
I usually rent cheap, so I know the Spark well. A much better car to drive than the Mirage and Versa. It has an actual personality, too- just like the Pez dispensers.
I also have scratched my head over how the smallest cars don’t live up to mpg expectations and ratings. I had a Mirage rental in CA that got well under 30 mpg hwy. But to be fair, I drove it over the Grapevine on a hot day keeping the throttle mostly floored and rpms as high as the CVT allowed even on flat ground trying to keep up.
Years ago, I had an old timer in Texas tell me if one tows big trailers a lot, get the big block in your truck so your not always using high rpms and peak power as much and you’ll save gas. He was onto something with that.
I think everything you mentioned about the mileage rings true to me. Like you, I had to keep flooring it to merge and so on. I’ve never driven a current Mirage or Versa, so I have no frame of comparing the Spark to either of those cars, but the Spark had personality to me by virtue of seeming only slightly larger than a Club Car.
OTOH I’ve had a Toyota Yaris and a Honda Fit which both regularly exceed their EPA mileage numbers (the Yaris did by a lot, the Fit encourages harder driving). Both with manual transmissions, that may have something to do with it.
A friend of mine has a Spark EV and loves it. I’ve ridden in it and it has some pep. He knows a lot about cars but isn’t a conventional car buff. He has owned a Gremlin AND a Matador, the latter with a Ford stepside pickup bed grafted on the back. That was about 50 years ago. I rode in that one too at least once. It didn’t have pep, but it did have pickup 😀.
Your friend sounds cool, just by those cars. I’ve always been curious about the driving experience of the Spark EV, and I’m pleased to find out (at least secondhand) that it was not a bad one.
Had a Spark rental from enterprise in the summer of 2022 in Durango, CO. Nice to drive, but the most uncomfortable seats of any vehicle in my memory.
I don’t remember much about the front seat comfort (one might think that I would! Indon’t think I was white-knuckling it on the expressway the whole time), but what I do remember is that the upholstery was that kind of almost slippery fabric with sheen, flecked with little “pieces of flair”. It fit.
PEZ are from Austria, and I was eating them there in the ’50s before any of you Americans! We loved them. And we loved American Bazooka bubble gum.
When we moved to Iowa in 1960, there were no PEZ and no Lego. So my grandmother would send packages that had some of both. But soon enough both of them showed up in the US.
There are several reasons very small city cars don’t get impressive mileage on the highway, aerodynamics being a significant one. A longer body is inherently more aerodynamic (other things being factored out) than a short one. The most extreme example of that is the Smart. Longer cars with a longer, tapered tail, like the Prius and such have much better aerodynamics.
Other reasons for the subpar fuel economy is that these cars pretty much only exist in the US market to assist the manufacturer’s fleet-wide CAFE rating, and smaller more efficient engines (which these did come with in other markets) would not offer adequate performance meeting US buyers’ expectations, at a time when gas prices weren’t spiking high enough to make better economy an acceptable tradeoff for reduced performance in buyers’ eyes.
I.e., they were pretty much only going to offer the single largest engine that would meet the economy target for the car’s CAFE “footprint” size and pull up the fleet average just enough that they didn’t need to nerf performance too much for other, more popular and profitable models.
I can’t even imagine a childhood without Pez or Lego. Just dynamite the whole thing. I also agree with your theory, Paul, about the blocky, chopped aerodynamics contributing to the lackluster (for the size) fuel mileage.
PEZ seem to appeal to every kid, (well, it’s candy, right?) but they do seem to have a knack for keeping up with pop culture, one of my kids’ favorites is coming across one of Candace (the acerbic older sister in the animated Phineas & Ferb), which is a fairly random character to make an example of. Candace is still kicking around in one of the kitchen drawers I’m sure…
I like the Spark, although I prefer the looks of the facelifted one (2016 or newer for the gas powered one although the EV carried the old style for 2016 as well). I’ve never driven one but they would seem to do the job with more interior space than the exterior would suggest.
And it’s a Daewoo! The under-appreciated brand whose problems perhaps had more to do with the people that owned them (and they way they maintained them or didn’t maintain them than the cars themselves. Although admittedly the business model in the U.S. was quite the debacle at the time of their direct sales.
Jim, I would now love to know more of the period-specific Pez dispenser offerings from certain time periods. I’m sure there were Transformers Pez in the ’80s and maybe Scooby Doo Pez in the ’70s.
I drove a rental Daewoo from Rent-A-Wreck in (I think) the late 2000s. It was a Lanos, IIRC, and it was unmemorable in most ways possible. Not bad. Not good. Just a way to get extended family around while we were all together.
I recall thinking when I used to see these around that a Spark would be a nice city car. But that was maybe close to 10 years ago, and even in just the ensuing decade the size of everything else on the road (including in cities) has just exploded in size such that I can no longer see wanting to be in something that tiny pretty much anywhere. They’re close to the size of a SMART car (which oddly I do still see around infrequently), and just the other day I observed one of those on the road along with the typical GMC Yukon etc. traffic and I wondered just what the heck kind of deathwish the driver of that SMART must have.
As for Pez, I was surprised to find that among all of the junk I have, I have precious few Pez dispensers. I do have a couple very nice sets of “Presidents of the United States” Pez. I mean, who wouldn’t want to own LBJ immortalized in Pez? (or Herbert Hoover…not pictured)
Jeff, great point about the size of cars like the Spark and Smart ForToo relative to even the size of the *average* vehicle on the road. I do remember having an elevated heart rate several times while driving my rental on the freeway, especially when on the on-ramp and there were semis. I thought to myself, “Joe, you got this. However, you will surely die if you get in an accident in this thing.”
I fondly recall the Pez times from my childhood. I also fondly recall the more recent Spark ownership.
In late 2014, my divorce from a very toxic 5 year marriage was finalized on December 24th. Till this day, I say it was the best Christmas gift ever. But all that court stuff and a divorce can be costly and I was in a place that I would call the lowest point in my life. But none of that matters if you need transportation and that I did. Enter (what I could afford at that time) my beloved 2014 Lemonade yellow Spark 2LT. Same color as the one above, but with the fancier trim and rims. It’s what I could afford and that made it MY car and the one that was going to transport me back to a better place. It was far from a great car, but a good car overall. At that time, I posted that when life gives you lemons, you get “Lemonade” and the picture of my car. Sadly, that was short lived as a guy in an old rat Nissan truck decided to smash up the rear of my new little yellow car while I was sitting in traffic at a stop light. The car was drivable and all 4 door still opened, but the insurance totaled the car. There were no more 2014’s left and nobody had a direct replacement, and that is how I ended up getting my first EV. I replaced the yellow one with a light blue (electric blue) Spark EV. Although the same basic car, the way they felt and drove couldn’t be more different. I really enjoyed those two years with that lease as I grew myself into a much better place on a personal level.
So great article. Both the Pez and Sparks have a special place in my heart, but for two very different reasons.
Dan, thank you for sharing this. I totally hear how the Sparks, plural, played an important supporting role in an important transitional time for you, and thus earned a place in your heart. I can think of a few things that played similar roles in my own life.
Years ago, I knew a stoner chick whose boyfriend had the idea of creating collectable Pez dispensers made of some sort of longer-lasting material than plastic. I think he was going to have them made of pewter. It never panned out but it seems like it held ‘some’ promise.
Nice! You know kids would start throwing them at each other and lawsuits would ensure. A pewter Pez dispenser is kind of a cool idea, though. I wonder if an artisan somewhere ended up realizing that idea.
It is sad to see the end of the $15,000 car. When I bought my Golf, I actually considered a Spark. I reasoned that it would be a good little city car with decent fuel consumption and a nimble size.
I have a 34″ inseam and the problem with Spark was the driver’s seat didn’t go back far enough for me to be comfortable.
The car makers are now focusing on what makes them the most money. The only “cheap” car left now is the Nissan Versa. It is sad to see the selection of cheap cars mostly gone.
People need inexpensive, new transportation – I absolutely agree. I wonder if all of the mandatory safety technology renders the idea of an inexpensive, basic car obsolete.
Wishing I’d a known to buy a “Spark” or something like it , prior to “2020”.
I’d have a “semi late model”, car now.
My “ancient money pit” is real headache.
I think inexpensive cars can become proverbial money pits as well, but I do also lament the extinction of the decent-quality inexpensive car.
I don’t recall PEZ from my childhood, so the candy this brought to my mind was banana-flavored salt water taffy. The car is even shaped kind of like a piece of taffy, an irregular shape wrapped in wax paper.
I also see this. I could see how I might have taken this in a “Now And Laters” or taffy direction.