[ajay_satpute]

There is crazy mad rush at all Nexa outlets for the Baleno. Baleno is not only killing its rivals but its also devouring its own siblings like Swift and Dzire. My SA at Nexa told me that they have received a lot of requests to transfer bookings from Maruti to Nexa.

Yesterday alone Nexa, Baner delivered 45 Balenos. Highest selling variant is Delta petrol it seems.

All said and done, i am seriously concerned about the build quality of Baleno. 220 kgs lighter than i20 and also lighter than its rivals like Polo, Punto, etc... The sheet metal is really thin, evident when you lift open the bonnet.

Standing next to the S Cross which is the best built Suzuki car yet in India, Baleno feels like a cost cut product. I would not pay close to 10 lakhs on road for the Baleno diesel top end. Its my personal opinion, no offence meant to owners Baleno.

Cheers!

[WRXXX]

Originally Posted by WRXXX

Sorry, thanks for correcting.
We were of the impression that Suzuki will employ the K12B(Dual Jet) engines for the Baleno and thats where my confusion came about. You are right K12M is the same Swift engine that is used.

And the K12B Dual Jet I was referring to was this. And this is used in all the variants abroad from 2014 onwards I think.

Small OT for those interested in the Suzuki engines.

Forgot to mention that BoosterJet(K10C) is a natural progression, by adding a Turbo unit to K10B of Alto. So essentially Alto has a more recently engineered engine than Swift. Of course natural noise & vibration associated with the high compression engines and unbalanced three cylinders to top that.

And amazing that out of an Alto sized BJ engine they could extract more torque and power than the normal/DJ Swift engine. And the BoosterJet FE should be in the northward of 23kmpl then (Wiki and media say it is 27kmpl).

And this is in the same lines as EcoBoost engines of Ford too. But for those who might be expecting refinement out of the BoosterJet, I can say that unless Suzuki engineers do extraordinary work it would be tough to achieve the same level of refinement as the current Swift engines(Should I say impossible?). In fact I have already cancelled my Celerio booking on that account alone.

[KreativeGeek]

Spotted a White Baleno on Pimple Saudagar road today in Pune, as excited I was about the new design and curvy looks for the new Baleno going through many pics/ user submitted snaps from Nexa Showrooms.

IMHO, I am a little disappointed with the looks now, again nothing against the car or the brand and my 2 cents are not going to matter much to the success path Baleno has already carved for MS.



The rear design of the car looks too wide and does not sync well from the portion rising above the rear windshield, tail lights have a protruding look doesn't blend well and rear windshield area looks too cramped and small.



Coming to the front design, it fails to invoke the kind of road presence I was anticipating after going through review videos on YouTube and pics from launch event. It only manages to give an impression of overgrown Swift and if you look at the areas pointed in the pic above, the lower air dam and curves around the side could have being highlighted to bring out the real character of the new design.

Looking at the current Swift I think it looks more proportionate & better to the Baleno

[ajay_satpute]

Originally Posted by KreativeGeek

IMHO, I am a little disappointed with the looks now, again nothing against the car or the brand and my 2 cents are not going to matter much to the success path Baleno has already carved for MS.

I agree to an extent. The rear windshield is kind of cramped. I also felt that the boot loading lip is too high for comfort. Owners will have to lift the luggage and then put it down in the deep boot.

BTW, i caught a Nexa SA who was delivering a dented Baleno to a noob customer. I alarmed the customer that there is a dent on the body right above the tyre. I also told the showroom manager that they should not be delivering cars like this, at least not from Nexa. So he immediately had a meeting with the SA and the customer and promised the customer to resolve the matter ASAP.

[Sebring]

You'd think they are coming very close to VW Scirocco in the rear design. That car has absolutely drool worthy rear.



The rear design of the car looks too wide and does not sync well from the portion rising above the rear windshield, tail lights have a protruding look doesn't blend well and rear windshield area looks too cramped and small.

[Crazy_Bean]

Originally Posted by KreativeGeek

IMHO, I am a little disappointed

Completely agree. happened to see a few Balenos on the road today. The rear appears too high and stubby. A good looking hatch needs to have a low slung and squat look from the back. I like the front though. Overall lacks that young racer boy appeal.

I have the strong feeling that the Baleno craze will soon wear off. It will still do respectable numbers though.

[dass]

There is a NEXA showroom very close to home and whenever I am going in that direction on weekends I see HUGE crowds and almost all of them are waiting for a TD of the BALENO. I have seen almost all the colours of the car and it does have a pretty strong road presence. I believe the car looks its best in the purple/blue colour and the showroom had 2 or 3 TD cars in that colour. I did not see the same rush when the S-CROSS was launched, so I think the crowd is for the BALENO. Overall, its a pretty well designed car.

If I was in the market looking out for a new car, this would be one of the top contenders.

[invidious]

I went today to the NEXA at Phoenix in Lower Parel to get an update on my booked car. First, the valet was brusque and asks me to call the RA as he refused to park my car. Somehow they found a slot. Then the RA tried to convince me to change the color of my booked car. I refused. When I returned to my car, the valet or someone associated with NEXA had stolen my cell charger from my car. I raised a fuss and told them am calling the cops. They tried to figure out who did it and threw up their hands in despair. So much for a premium experience. The contrast with Hyundai could not be more striking. Imagine this is before they sell the car. I wonder what they will do after the purchase is complete.

[Sherlocked]

Originally Posted by KreativeGeek

IMHO, I am a little disappointed with the looks...
The rear design of the car looks too wide and does not sync well from the portion rising above the rear windshield

Coming to the front design, it fails to invoke the kind of road presence I was anticipating after going through review videos on YouTube and pics from launch event. It only manages to give an impression of overgrown Swift.

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

I agree to an extent. The rear windshield is kind of cramped.

Originally Posted by Sebring

tail lights have a protruding look doesn't blend well and rear windshield area looks too cramped and small.

Originally Posted by Crazy_Bean

Completely agree. happened to see a few Balenos on the road today. The rear appears too high and stubby.:

Yes, the rear does looks weird especially seen from at a distance.
See the pics which I clicked a while back standing from a distance and the back end does looks disproportionate and puny. I wonder where did all the width gone. Compare it to the Pulse standing by side.
Turns out one cannot judge a car just by reading it's measurements in spec sheet.

[lurker]

that's a weird tail line, or are the shadows playing a trick or two. Did Maruti drop structural reinforcements in rear as unnecessary and do away with a beam or two resulting in tail ending higher up.

[BaluJ]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

The 1.2L K series motor is indeed the K12M. The 1L in WagonR, Alto etc is the K10B.

Based on the initial reports, it looks like MSIL has worked on the K12M to make it more responsive compared to the Swift.

Isn't the K12M engine tuning same for both Swift and the Baleno?

[djpeesh]

Took a Baleno CVT for a test drive today and quite enjoyed it. The interiors do feel a little low rent but that seems to be par for the course, going by my experience with the Micra CVT, Brio/Jazz AT and the Grand i10 AT (these are the automatic hatches I checked out for my dad)

Of the lot, the Baleno is the newest, most kitted out and comes with safety kit which is not negotiable.

Nexa Experience:

The showroom was super crowded as the it was on the previous two occasions I dropped in. A salesman attended to me and immediately said no auto variant for test drive. I told him to check again (as I'd got a call saying it had arrived). Sure enough it was there.

Quickly filled up a form and he pulled out the car. It had done 89 kms so far and i was apparently the first to drive it.

I managed to get a longish, 8 km test drice and the sales advisor didnt hassle me to turn around or cut the drive short.

I drove the car in traffic, on empty stretches, on potholes and up steep slopes. Overall, this is the first CVT which doesn't seem lazy at least to my inexperienced mind. It is peppy and a nudge causes it to shoot forward.

The seats are superbly bolstered, maybe a little over bolstered and the suspension is marvellous, at any rate feels nicer than my XUV500 through potholes and on bad roads.

The handling is a bit vague but I'm not sure whether it's an overly assisted power steering.

I liked the gearbox and it seemed to have a lower rubber band effect, although I was driving mildly aggressively and not flooring the car.

It also effortlessly climbed the slope up at Palladium at Phoenix Mills and the brakes were nice.

Interiors were equipped with an integrated music system that supports Bluetooth and has steering mounted controls.

Booked the car but currently having a disagreement with the nexa dealer about bringing my own insurance vs taking it from them. They say it's a company policy that outside insurance is not allowed. Let's see how that pans out as I plan to stick to my guns.

[sourabhzen]

Originally Posted by djpeesh

Booked the car but currently having a disagreement with the nexa dealer about bringing my own insurance vs taking it from them. They say it's a company policy that outside insurance is not allowed. Let's see how that pans out as I plan to stick to my guns.

How much is the difference between Maruti's quote and insurance quote from outside?

[shivasuma]

Originally Posted by djpeesh

Booked the car but currently having a disagreement with the nexa dealer about bringing my own insurance vs taking it from them. They say it's a company policy that outside insurance is not allowed. Let's see how that pans out as I plan to stick to my guns.

As far as I know a company cannot make a policy like that and force you to take insurance with them. Send an email to Maruti and it should get sorted out.

[spsam]

There has been media drives for the Europe-spec Suzuki Baleno in Spain. The links to a few UK reviews are listed below. The following are a few highlights:

1. The weight of the UK-spec petrol cars is 905-950 kgs. The petrol variants offered in the UK are either with the Dualjet engine with SHVS mild hybrid or the turbo-charged Boosterjet engine. They have additional components to the India-spec which adds to the weight.
2. Everyone has shared very positive reviews about the Boosterjet engine's performance for being quick and economical. This is offered both with a 5-speed manual and a 6-speed automatic with paddles which has also received very positive reviews.
3. The quality of interiors and general build quality has been commented to be much poorer than the competition.

Given the 2017 Swift will be based on the same platform which Suzuki might improve upon, that would be one nice car to lookout for.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/suzuki/...no-2015-review
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/road-tes...016-road-test/