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The second big unveil for Maruti on day 2 was the Fronx crossover. The car shares its underpinnings with the Baleno, but additionally gets a 1.0-liter Boosterjet turbo-petrol engine that makes 99 BHP and 147 Nm. It’s mated to a 5-speed MT or a 6-speed automatic with paddle shifters. The other engine option is a 1.2-liter naturally aspirated petrol engine that makes 89 BHP and 113 Nm.


If you want to have a closer look at the variant-wise feature distribution and technical specifications, you can download the Maruti Fronx brochure here – Maruti Fronx Brochure.pdf

You get a big grille up front with a chunky chrome strip that carries the Suzuki logo. The bumper has a lot of creases and you have a wide front skid plate:


The rear gets an LED strip connecting the tail lamps and looks a little stretched out. It measures 3,995 mm in length, 1,765 mm in width, and 1,550 mm in height and has a wheelbase of 2,520 mm:


A look at the LED DRLs:


Down below, you have LED multi-reflector headlamps:


The front camera is part of the 360-degree view system:


The ORVMs get integrated turn indicators and house cameras as well:


These are 16-inch alloy wheels shod with 195/60 section tyres. The front wheels get disc brakes while the rear wheels get drum brakes:


The LED tail lamps have a similar design as the DRLs:


The exhaust is nicely tucked away behind the rear skid plate:


Interiors draw inspiration from the Grand Vitara more than the Baleno. It has a Black and Bordeaux contrasting color scheme:


The panel on the right-hand side of the drive has controls for the heads-up display, traction control, 360-degree view, and auto start-stop system. You also have the engine start/stop button and a headlamp leveler:


Space in the backseat seems similar to the Baleno:


The parcel tray gets a noticeable border. Also, note that the Fronx gets 3 adjustable headrests for the rear passengers (Baleno gets only 2) and 3-point seatbelts for all 3 passengers:


The 1.0L K-series Turbo Boosterjet Direct Injection engine is available with a 5-speed manual transmission or a 6-speed automatic with paddle shifters:


Mod Note: Our Maruti Fronx Review has been taken live at this link. Please continue the discussion over on the new thread. Thanks!

What is the ground clearance for this car ? It is not mentioned in brochure unlike Jimny.
Does the boot space appears adequate for the segment?

Maruti Suzuki Fronx Bookings open.

Press Release

Whatever does Fronx mean? Is it a word meant to excite the Indian consumer with its unpronounceable hence “exotic” allusions? Sounds more like a snort in a foreign language to me… :confused:

Wow! 100 HP 147 Nm is not a lot for a sub-compact SUV. It's much lesser than Hyundai's 1.0L turbo. Shame.

Since it's a new Maruti, it will be a head turner at the Expo.

-The K series, 1.0 L has a TC generating more bhp viz 99 bhp/147 NM, vis a vis the 1.2 L non TC that generates 89 bhp/113 NM. Nothing to make any enthusiast go gaga over it.

- The length of 3,995 mm is bound to constrict the rear seat legspace. God forbid if the driver is a six footer who pushes the driver's seat rearward and the rear right passenger also a six footer.

- Overall it appears to be a repackaging on a new body shell of whatever MSIL has in its old and dated bin, with a new name.

- And the BIG question, an answer to which all will await with bated breath is - How many stars will this new Fronx score while undergoing the NCAP crash test?

I don't think they were looking forward to replacing the S-Cross with this. Was expecting the 1.4L turbo petrol but I think this is a trend with Maruti letting enthusiasts down with underpowered cars.
I don't think this will be a sales dud though, they've pretty much nailed it with the interior and features offered. If priced well, this will definitely sell well which works out for them as a company. What it will never be, is a worthy successor to the S-Cross with its ambitious and potent 1.6 diesel.
Hopefully, they introduce the 1.4 turbo jet in a future iteration of this car or a newer model, and hope 'Fronx' does not disappoint in the safety crash tests.

P.S 'Fronx' clearly sounds like an afterthought:)

With a whacky name to say the least (I laughed hard reading someone mentioning that it sounds like "Frogs") and a decent sporty/coupe inspired design this car has promise.

The turbo certainly is not as powerful as Hyundai's, but at least this car gets a 1.2L NA engine and not a 1L (think of the Magnites & Kigers), which I feel is the bare minimum for this segment.

Good to see the torque converter AT though. Its performance remains to be seen along with the AGS/AMT's performance. I would await team BHP's review for that.

Lastly, I hope this scores at least 4* in safety ratings.

PS: How are Suzuki's AMT boxes performing these days in general across newer models?

So this will mostly be priced where the previous Brezza was that has now gone up the price-chain. Am guessing between Baleno and Brezza. The 1.2L NA would help with attractive ’starts from’ number, while the 1.0L boosterjet would make up for pricier top end(zeta & alpha). Power figures for the boosterjet seems similar to the 1.0L turbo in Kiger/Magnite. With 6 speed TC box, the 99bhp turbo shouldn’t be too slow as the weight isnt too high (~1000kgs). Maruti seems to have another winner on cards. :thumbs up

Naming while seems weird, wont have a problem. If Creta never deterred people, fronx shouldn’t either. Unless it’s something like ‘laura’ , people won’t bother :D

Being based on Baleno, it will be as good or bad as the donor car. I haven’t heard anyone complaining about baleno’s legroom. Infact its better than something like Venue.

This again will mostly be similar to Baleno/Swift. Looking at the hatchback’s MoM sales numbers, don’t think it would be a problem for its prospective customers.

My conjecture :

Fronte used to be the model name by which the Suzuki Alto / SS80 (original Maruti 800) was sold in some parts of the world.

Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Fronte
"From 1984 until replaced in 1986, the four-door SS80 Fronte was built in India by Maruti as the "800"."

And X is the go-to letter in the alphabet whenever an automaker wants to add some "off-roadiness" to their model name.

So, instead of Fronte-X or Frontex, someone in Maruti Suzuki concatenated it to Fronx ?

That's my guess ...

Cheers,

FourWheelDrift

I couldn't find the ground clearance of Fronx anywhere.


As Maruti is mentioning it as an SUV, I assume it will be atleast 190mm ? Else, it will be better to call it a Baleno Cross instead of an SUV.

To make it a truly different product Maruti should have perhaps worked on to increase the rear headroom.

Is it just me or is the Fronx genuinely attractive? I mean, the Maruti lineup generally isn’t attractive with the Swift and the Grand Vitara being exceptions. I don’t know how it will look in the fresh but it does look sort of desirable in photos.

There is a overload of buttons on the right hand side of steering. Could have laid them out well on the centre dash. Also, the quality of these buttons seem like they are from atleast 30 years ago !
Maruti needs to bring a new, simplistic and graceful design to all their cars.

Although there's denying that FRONX sounds weird, the name is not completely new as far as Maruti is concerned. The nameplate was reportedly under consideration for the current Baleno during its development in 2014-15.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ind...5-3299550/amp/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mot...disguised/amp/

Now talking about the car, overall it looks fantastic barring the headlamp cluster which looks too busy to my liking. Maruti designers have done well to break the stereotype and bring in a refreshing design. As always, pricing remains the key to it's success.