[vkochar]

Well - In terms of sales , the Baleno was a failure - everyone knows that so nothing Surprising there.

In terms of performance the Baleno was a very good car and again everyone knows that

MUL has been stupid in the past and I think what the journalist was trying to say was that SX4 should not go the Baleno way. Anyway we all very well know that the SX4 is a winner - because it's fully loaded at a very tempting price.

I have driven both the vehicles - SX4 only for a few km's BUT I can say this - Baleno drives much better than a SX4.

Actually IMHO - MUL is making / has made a big mistake by not selling the Baleno and now Esteem. These cars are tried and trusted.

Tell me one thing - Hyundai has been intelligent enough to still sell the Accent GLE - now at 4.99 Lacs Ex. Why cannot MUL do the same - Baleno at 4.xx Lacs !! It would sell in 4 digits definetely every month.

Just my thoughts !! Cheers !!

[kpzen]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

How many were sold in this period?

Ok i might have got the word "Success" wrong here.
But i know it was selling more than Esteems here during May-Oct 2006.

[spadival]

Originally Posted by leodelg

And the journalist (whoever he was, he did the smart thing by not revealing his name) had boldy stated "Let's hope that the SX4 doesn't follow the same path as its predecessor and become a complete failure".

Hmm... I doubt whether my opinion about these so called "Auto journalist" can sink any lower than it already is.

[shrivz]

The Baleno was a marketing disaster!

I'm a Baleno owner myself, but I wouldn't exactly call the car a success. It hasn't proved its point in terms of sales, it wasn't ever a VFM buy until they started the Euro-III version and stock clearence, and by that time, it was past its time!

The baleno is a great car, but here, the word "success" is more inclined to sales figures!

[GTO]

Of course the Baleno was a failure at launch. The first 5 years of its production resulted in segment-worst sales numbers. A 2 lac price cut did improve sales but never to the level that its manufacturer expected, or that of similarly priced competitors.

It was also the Maruti with the shortlest life span (after the original Maruti 800).

[BlackPearl]

The Baleno may not have set the sales charts on fire, so what?? if only the sales figures are considered then even Palio 1.6 is a failure, but that does not make these cars failures. Till now all the driver oriented cars (except vtec) have been failures be it the Ford Mondeo or the Baleno or the Fiat 1.6. But interestingly, the people who dont own Balenos tend to give bad feedbacks about the car particularly about the looks. But those who have owned the car vouch for it and would buy it again if given the choice. Once I had gone to a Maruti dealership and saw a middle aged man who came in a 2000 Baleno and enquired about another Baleno (2005) and bought it. The GM of the dealership told me that there has been several such cases where the owners of Balenos have come back and bought another baleno. but he also told that maruti had not done anything apart from a price cut to make this car a success. So the Baleno will continue to fire up the passion in the hearts of the enthusiasts and the auto journalists can burn in hell.....

[shuvc]

Does anyone have approx figures indicating how many Balenos have been sold since it's launch?

[esteem_lover]

The best baleno was definitely a failure - the Altura

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by GTO

It was also the Maruti with the shortlest life span (after the original Maruti 800).

I thought the Maruti 1000 and the Zen classic were the ones with the shortest life span.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by shuvc

Does anyone have approx figures indicating how many Balenos have been sold since it's launch?

About 20,000 until Mar '07.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

I thought the Maruti 1000 and the Zen classic were the ones with the shortest life span.

The M-1000 sold from 1991 to 2000. I would say that's long. Zen classic, carbon, steel were all just variants of the Zen which lasted from 1994 to 2004/05.

[supremeBaleno]

To be fair, the journalist is not exactly off-the-mark. The Baleno did not really set the sales charts on fire when launched. But post the price-cuts, it was doing pretty good.

Anyway, I am happy it was not a roaring success, because if it was, then there was no way in hell, I could've got such an awesome car for less than 6lakhs.

I know that the SX4 is great value for the price and it is supposed to be doing great in sales also, but why is it that there are not many seen on the roads ? Sort of like the Verna when we used to get unbelievable sales figures for it, but would not see them on the roads. MUL still having problems rolling out SX4s ?

[Technocrat]

I belive the Reporter wasnt exactly wrong becaue sales figures were never impresssive.

I have different look out at cars like Baleno & Palio 1.6, they are like those (art)movies which get lots of Critical Acclaim but poor success at Box Office

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

The M-1000 sold from 1991 to 2000. I would say that's long. Zen classic, carbon, steel were all just variants of the Zen which lasted from 1994 to 2004/05.

Are you serious that the M-1000 was sold until 2000? I think production was stopped as soon as the Esteem was launched. Mebbe I perceived the Zen thing in a wrong way.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

Are you serious that the M-1000 was sold until 2000? I think production was stopped as soon as the Esteem was launched. Mebbe I perceived the Zen thing in a wrong way.

The esteem & the M-1000 co-existed til 1997. It was stopped in 1998 & brought back (or cleared some stocks) in 1999-2000. A team-bhpian owns a 2000 M-1000.