Maruti Baleno

The large dimensions of the car come into play in aiding practicality, and the new Baleno is a very spacious car. There is enough legroom in the rear for you to even stretch your legs – let alone sit comfortably. The front seats are fairly comfortable too, and provide adequate back support, but the rear seat squab was just too flat and lacked any sort of side or thigh support. It felt more like a bench. The cabin interiors are all black, which we personally like, with silver inserts around the air conditioner vents and lower centre console. The design is uncluttered and easy to use, but could use quality improvements.

Maruti likes to stick to its tried and tested engines and so the Baleno gets the standard 1.3 litre diesel mill with 74bhp and is mated to a 5-gear transmission.

Maruti Suzuki engineers have worked very hard to keep the NVH levels down. With 74bhp in the 1.3 litre diesel unit, the Baleno felt eager, but with the turbo lag you end up shifting gears on a regular basis, especially in city traffic. Also on the highway, the power tends to fizzle out, and in order to get optimum speed you do need to keep the rev needle between 2,500-3,000rpm. But the engine never labours for power and a lot of credit goes to the new monocoque platform, which is lighter and more rigid. The 5-speed transmission easily slotted into gear without any hassles and the hatchback responded instantly and in a smooth linear fashion. When it comes to the handling department, the Baleno pleasantly surprised us with its razor sharp capability. Maruti cars usually have a softer suspension set up, but in the Baleno they’ve managed to strike just the right balance as it never felt bumpy or wallowed on broken roads. It took on corners like no other Maruti can even imagine. It’s definitely right up there with the segment champion, the Elite i20 in terms of handling. Its overall performance is great, but we would have like some added power.

The 1.3 litre diesel unit manages to provide a very good fuel economy of 19kmpl.

The Baleno gets power steering, power windows, air-conditioning and a music system, but its best feature is without a doubt the 7-inch infotainment touch screen display that hogs all the attention on the dashboard. This is the first car system in India that comes with Apple CarPlay as a standard feature. This lets you access your iPhone for various functions like accessing contacts, reading out text messages, viewing maps, making calls, etc.

Safety features on the Baleno include ABS and airbags.

The overall quality and reliability of the car are obviously very good. The fit and finish is fine and of course it’s a Maruti so you need not worry about after sales issues. The interiors however do feel like they could have been improved. Interior quality is something Maruti needs to seriously work on.

The car is a brilliant product and you are getting every bang for your buck with this.

Out of all the hatches in the segment the Baleno offers the best features and most modern design, however its not as peppy, but it’s certainly priced better. The car is wonderful for city use so if you aren’t in need of power and if you want a good ride with non-stop connectivity then this is the car for you. If you want better pverall driving performance then the i20 is unmatched.