An Amazingly Comfortable Car

Exterior

I have got my Baleno Alpha in late March/2016 and I am very happy about my purchase and the exterior looks are amazing, especially with the DRLs, they are head-turners. During the initial days, everyone used to stare at my Car.  

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort)

Comforts and conveinence features are top-notch. Ability to connect your smart phone either through CarPlay(iphone only) or through Bluetooth is simply superb. Cool touch-screen, TFD panels, electro-chromatic IRVM for night rides and UV cut glasses are excellent. Siri works great and my children really loved the CarPlay. 

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox

 My earlier car was SWIFT ZXI, to be frank, SWIFT was a great car for drivers, Baleno pick-up is not that great compared to SWIFT, but it's close. I would say 80/100. Gear-shift I have liked in SWIFT only, its far smoother than Baleno. But, you get used to it. Regarding the mileage, I have to admit that Baleno wins hands-down. My SWIFT gave around 14/litre after 3 years of usage, but Baleno is giving me from second month. It could be even better because I drove in a very busy bumper to bumper traffic

Ride Quality & Handling

The other department that Baleno scores is, Ride quality and handling. This category, it wins hands-down against my old SWIFT. The quality of the ride is so smooth and NVH noise levels are very well controlled. First week, I felt like I got deaf, because it was such quite, but after that I get used to it probably.  

Final Words

This is the best can I have purchased and drove till now and I am very happy about my purchase 

Areas of improvement  

1. Rear-view visibitliy is a bit poor when rear head restraints are fully opened. It could have been better, also ORVMs could be little bigger. 

2. If your engine stops in the middle on the road, the CarPlay doesn't start after you re-start the engine. You have to un-plug and re-plug again. It's glitch I think

3. Sometimes, re-starting an engine is really a pain, Don't know what you were doing wrong

4. Maps and inbuilt navigation is useless, they should have provided Google maps instead of Nokia maps and I have till date not used even once. So useless and crap. 

Otherthan the above, everything else was good and great. So, go for it, you will really love the Car. I know the wait is too long and I had to wait for 2.5 months but it's worth the wait. I would have switched to Brezza if they have offered the petrol version, but they didn't and I am satisfied with Baleno. 

Baleno ROCKS....

Thanks

Srinivas

 

Great Style, Creature comforts and Excellent comfortBasic version of CarPlay and some glitches