Efficient, Comfortable, Stylish and premium drive

Have bought Baleno Alpha 1.3 Diesel in April’16 and crossed the odometer reading of 17500KMs recently. Till now the experience is good.

 

Exterior: Like in every reviews, the looks are great and styling is awesome. Day time running LEDs, Xenon Projector headlamps and LED tail lamps which are available only on top end adds premium effect. The liquid flow design style makes Baleno stands out from other competitor products. The only improvement require is the sheet metal used. It is very thin and a small scratch / dash keeps deep impression on the vehicle.

 

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort): Spacious…When you get in the Baleno, you feel how much space is available be it front seats, rear seats or even boot space. Best in class leg room at both front and rear seats. For people with height  6 feet and more may feel some lack of head room at rear seat. For long drive, you will never feel tiredness and get comfortable, premium drive. Dashboard is really refreshing and different from other Maruti products (except Steering wheel – similar to Ciaz, Swift) but plastic quality could have been better. Smart Play Infotainment (Manufactured by Bosch, Germany) is really good and touch screen response is also good. Apple Car Play really works wow. But I faced issues with USB (16GB USB with almost no space free). Most of the time the system hangs while selecting the songs from USB and every time I have to format the USB drive. Voice Assist is really superb. On a click of button, you can play Album, Song, start navigation or make a call. Navigation is so so. Maps are not quite updated and hence suggest to cross check the route with google maps. I’m also surprised that Baleno is premium hatchback and even in top end model, company is giving fabric seats.

 

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox: I am using Baleno in city like Mumbai. So in Mumbai Traffic I’m getting fuel economy of 22-23 KMPL (avg. Speed of 60-80KMPH). Recently I took my Baleno for long drive to South and covered 2850 KMs in 4days. It was extensive drive (on an average 700 KMs per day) and got the fuel economy of 26.89KMPL. No doubt the roads were 4 lane to 6 lane and my average speed was 90 – 100 KMPH. One thing to say that I never felt tired after driving so much. Sometimes the RPM goes below 1000 and engine knocks, but very rarely. Overall full marks to Baleno in this section.

 

Ride Quality & Handling: At low speed (upto 110KMPH) it is very smooth drive. At high speed, due to light weight you may not get that much of confidence and feels that vehicle is wobbling. I have touched the speed of 145KMPH, but only for few seconds. So it may not be the right vehicle for speed freaks. Suspension quality could have been better, especially at high speeds and speed breakers. But again, due to light weight of the vehicle, you may get the feeling of jumping’s.

 

Final Words: Superb car. Extreme comfort for long drives, city drives. Efficient, Comfortable, Stylish and premium drive. Lots more to share but due to time & space constraint, will share it later.

 

 

Areas of improvement: Lots of improvement scope in Interior, Infotainment System and suspensions.

Fuel Economy, Spacious, StyleSuspension, Interior Plastic Quality