[TusharK]

Maruti Suzuki has claimed that it has sold 5 lakh units of the Baleno hatchback in a period of 38 months. The car was launched in India in October 2015.



According to Maruti Suzuki, sales of the Baleno grew by 20.6% in the first half of 2018-19 compared to the same period last year. Team-BHP's sales analysis (October 2018 : Indian Car Sales Figures & Analysis) shows that in October 2018, Maruti sold 18,657 units of the car, which is a growth of 28.4% compared to October 2017. Maruti claims that the car has over 27% market share in its segment.

The Baleno is powered by a 1.2-litre, 4-cylinder petrol engine that produces 83 BHP @ 6,000 rpm and 115 Nm of torque @ 4,000 rpm. It is also available with a 1.3-litre, 4-cylinder diesel engine that makes 74 BHP @ 4,000 rpm and 190 Nm @ 2,000 rpm. A 5-speed manual transmission is offered as standard with both engines, while the petrol version gets a continuously variable transmission (CVT) as an option.

In March 2017, Maruti introduced the Baleno RS. The car is powered by a 1.0-litre, 3-cylinder, turbocharged petrol engine that delivers 101 BHP @ 5,500 rpm and 150 Nm of peak torque @ 1,700-4,500 rpm and is mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox.

Link to Team-BHP News

[Thermodynamics]

They launched it for 5 Lakhs and have sold 5 Lakhs. In 2015, it was a steal deal at that price range, obviously it made a Tehelka. It has been 3 years and it still sells good numbers despite many competitors. No one gets closer to MSIL when it comes to marketing and service.

[silverado]

Maruti must have sold more than 3 lakh Baleno's in Premium Ray blue colour alone. It would be interesting if someone has a break-up of colour wise sale.

Yours truly was also guilty of buying the same colour, i hope they dont sell it anymore since it has become so common nowadays.

Such great numbers for a car which clearly had suspension issues, and Maruti got away without a recall.But i am glad they fixed issues for people who approached them and corrected the fault entirely in 2017 Baleno.

[Abhi_abarth]

Not surprised ! A spacious car loaded with features and screams 'Value for money' for the middle class segment (like me) who scans the market 100 times looking for the perfect bang for his buck.

Some of the features that drive people to this car are :

1. UV cut glasses although available on Zeta and Alpha which are very much within the budget. A plus to this is they give the car a premium look
2. SPACE - Acres of it. I don't know any car in this segment which offers so much space.
3. Fuel efficiency - Period !
4. Rear wipe & wash - Has been one of the deal breakers for me.
5. Ease of maintenance
6. The NEXA treatment. You are treated like a king (atleast till the car is delivered to you (wink))

Not to forget Maruti Suzuki badge on it.

[su1978]

Without any offence to the current Baleno owners and all future prospective buyers of this car, i am somehow not comfortable with the safety features and the protection this car would offer to the occupants in event of any mishap. No doubt, the engine is a gem and no other manufacturer has been able to compete with them. But for me it is definitely the build quality which is a priority. In my view, Hyundai/Volkswagen/ford/Tata/Toyota are much better any day. Am pasting one such link below(from youtube) which will give a much better insight into the accidents and damages suffered by the cars sold under Maruti stable. I am not sure about the authenticity of this link but from the pictures, it seems that these are for real.

https://youtu.be/qiFERatLK0M

Now it is all a matter of personal choice whether we care for our families and well being of our near and dear ones or the fuel efficiency.

[Adi22]

All good in this car except the feel of its sturdiness. Arguments go on whether a car can be termed unsafe just on the feel of its light build, maruti says high strength steel, unless they release a tested result from a recognized body like G-NCAP. Latest swift with 2 *, unstable structure with 2 airbags on so called latest heart-tec platform. I cannot convince myself to buy even if this sells a couple of million copies.

Hope Bharath NCAP does actual good in enforcing needed safety standards & not just a mere passing mark score to meet.

Kudos to TATA nexon on that front. Even the Zest did much better after coming from an indian manufacturer. So, there is scope for maruti to do better in this aspect instead of milking the customers using "#cheap maintenance" & "#kmpl kings" tags.

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by su1978

Am pasting one such link below(from Youtube) which will give a much better insight into the accidents and damages suffered by the cars sold under Maruti stable. I am not sure about the authenticity of this link but from the pictures, it seems that these are for real.

.

Agree with almost every point, except something which I find absolutely hilarious. How on earth can a compilation of different accident images of a particular brand, be enough to conclude the safety quotient of a vehicle??

If it was enough, all the hi-tech crash labs wouldn't have existed. I am definitely not justifying Maruti's cheap build here, I absolutely hate their so called Heartec Platform, which cannot even get the car a stable structure. But coming to a conclusion based on some random images doesn't give a clear picture. I hope you'll agree with me on this, the forces involved in any two crashes are not the same. There are a million other parameters which have to be taken in mind before coming to a conclusion.

So unless the crash evidence is presented by a lab under controlled circumstances, no two cars or crashes can be compared.

Regards,
Shashi

[GTO]

These press releases really kill two birds with one stone.

1. They strengthen consumer confidence in the brand & car.

2. They scare the heck out of competitors. Every major MNC car maker has entered India, but Maruti (and Hyundai) are beating them up black & blue. As an example, I don't think the VW Polo has sold 5 lakh copies even after spending almost 10 years in India! And that's from a car maker which has been No.1 globally.

[su1978]

Originally Posted by GTO

These press releases really kill two birds with one stone.

1. They strengthen consumer confidence in the brand & car.

2. They scare the heck out of competitors. Every major MNC car maker has entered India, but Maruti (and Hyundai) are beating them up black & blue. As an example, I don't think the VW Polo has sold 5 lakh copies even after spending almost 10 years in India! And that's from a car maker which has been No.1 globally.

Yes GTO, you hit the nail right on its head. This press release has actually proved both the points. But the second point also proves that we Indians are moved by mob mentality and are really hesitant to apply our own brains while making a decision to purchase a car. The sole criteria for our purchase still is fancy item and "kitna deti hai". We are not concerned by the build quality and the safety and security features. Even the service advisers from Maruti admit that the build quality has gone down drastically and they are just catering to the market demands.

Thirdly, coming to the point of Polo not selling 5 lakh copies even 10 years after launch could probably be due to the fact that they still have not been able to localize the production(which could result in easy availability of parts and keep the costs down) to the extent that Maruti has done. Another reason i see here is the fact that since these are MNC companies, they have to take many approvals from their global offices. And since these global offices are situated in some other part of globe, they are not at all aware about the market dynamics prevailing in India.

[su1978]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

Agree with almost every point, except something which I find absolutely hilarious. How on earth can a compilation of different accident images of a particular brand, be enough to conclude the safety quotient of a vehicle??

If it was enough, all the hi-tech crash labs wouldn't have existed. I am definitely not justifying Maruti's cheap build here, I absolutely hate their so called Heartec Platform, which cannot even get the car a stable structure. But coming to a conclusion based on some random images doesn't give a clear picture. I hope you'll agree with me on this, the forces involved in any two crashes are not the same. There are a million other parameters which have to be taken in mind before coming to a conclusion.

So unless the crash evidence is presented by a lab under controlled circumstances, no two cars or crashes can be compared.

Regards,
Shashi

Definitely mate. You are absolutely right. But the compilations are a collection of real world scenarios that one faces while driving a car on the road. Just going on to prove that the build quality of a premium product from the country largest carmaker is worse than the cheapest car sold in India. Real world situations are more worse. For example, how many times have we seen a crash while driving at a speed of 65? Normally, we would be doing some late double/early triple digit numbers on highways. And if the crash tests are conducted at that speed, Maruti cars would not even go onto score 1 star with 6 airbags on them. Nevertheless, i am digressing from the points that are being discussed on this thread.

For me the crux is that we indians are not at all concerned about anything other than "kitna deti hai". The day we start thinking otherwise, we will see very less of maruti on road

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by su1978

For me the crux is that we indians are not at all concerned about anything other than "kitna deti hai". The day we start thinking otherwise, we will see very less of maruti on road

Also the day Indian customers start prioritising safety over everything else, they will have to give us, else perish. Suddenly you'll see Maruti getting as well built as the cars from other manufacturers. Just compare the build of the Euro spec Swift with the ones we get here. Maruti will continuing shaving every last gram of metal in the name of fuel efficiency till the time we as consumers have that as our priority.

At the end of the day, I'd blame ourselves and our legislations for this carefree approach by manufacturers. If not for these regulations, I bet the carburettor tech in cars would still be going. Maruti sold them till 2005.

Cars like Omni is being discontinued because of the upcoming norms, not because of Maruti suddenly realising its unsafe.

[Aditya]

Mod Note : Please do not go off-topic. Restrict the discussion to the Baleno's sales figures.

[drmohitg]

Not really surprising. We were seriously considering the Baleno early in the year and it just trumped all others in its segment by quite a margin. Very well kitted, great looks which will age very gracefully, decent interior design and space and ofcourse the MSIL brand. The pricing further helps as all direct competitors are either short on features or support inflated price tags.

What is more surprising is that when the Baleno was launched, I expected it to eat away from the Swift sales. Afterall someone who wants a Figo/Polo would not consider MSIL product seriously, where as someone considering the Swift would love to shift to a Baleno. But MSIL successfully managed to sell both cars in such volumes month after month. The biggest factor is the Nexa outlets since a customer does not see the 2 models standing side by side.