[aravindkumarp]

Originally Posted by puneetakhouri

[b]
The Elephant of the Room - Build Quality

For me, owning the Baleno has been an amazing experience filled with lots of memories that we made together. Many more to come!!
Attachment 1891235

Thanks for the brilliant review. This will help lots of Baleno buyers.

As a fellow Baleno owner, picked the car around the same time - Oct 2015 , I have had a very similar experience as yours. Its quite a peppy car to drive in the city ( even in Bangalore ) and a good long distance vehicle too - haven't had back/leg pain even after driving 600+ kms in a single day.

Closing in on 4 years and 40K Kms now, and no rattles yet. The touchscreen and ICU functions works great. Voice command have had no issues too.

Build quality is indeed the sore point - lost count of minor scratches, even a very slight bike handle bar touch leaves the car with a noticeable scratch, sometimes even a dent. Quality inside too isnt great - my driver side door handle broke, front reading light glass cover broke, the silver lining around AC switches in the dashboard has a crack. Given its a Maruti, these don't dent your pocket, but feels bad when you see these in a premium hatchback.

Overall a great car that I love to drive despite the minor build issues.

[sureshkishore]

Great Review! Really has got me inspired to pen my review of the Zeta 1.2 brought home in October'15. Ran 69000till date. Since I can relate to each points in your review, my effort to write a review would seem like a cheap imitation of your superb review. So wouldn't make the attempt. Just wanted to share few points.

The OEM stereo with the extra Tweeters on the Zeta variant is excellent. Love the clear tone and the modest thump.

Appolo Alnac 4g do not generate much road noise and also have excellent life. Haven't replaced my oe set yet.


Zeta has UV cut glass which makes the AC even more effective than the Delta Sigma variants. Never found issue in the second row. I run my auto ac at 25-26 always. Apart from the cloth lining on the door pad coming off, no other issues.

[Dr.Naren]

Originally Posted by sureshkishore

Apart from the cloth lining on the door pad coming off, no other issues.

Did you get it fixed ? I too have the same issue. Maruti doesn't have only door pad as a part.

[sureshkishore]

@Naren

I removed the cloth and left the pad as it is, looks ok but need to get it cleaned as there is some residue of the adhesive.

[Motor_Nut]

Congratulations Punnet and thanks for sharing such a beautiful and befitting long term review. I also own a white 1.2L Baleno Alpha variant, bought in June 2019. It has traveled ~ 1500 kms as on date and I have been enjoying every bit of it.

Simply love the way it chugs along easily in third and fourth gears, bliss to drive in typical Indian city traffic conditions. I owned a 2012 Figo Diesel earlier which was way aggressive on open roads but required frequent gear shifting in city traffic. Auto AC in Baleno is just fantastic, my Mom often complained about too much cold in Figo’s cabin. But now she quietly sets the AC temperature in Baleno and yes, like your better half, she always keeps the vents pointed towards me. I don’t mind, after all, she is always eager to be my co-driver on those long highway trips.

As you and someone else shared in this thread, I am adjusting to the sharp clutch bite point of Baleno. Yesterday I was on a Gurugram-Chandigarh-Gurugram round trip and did manage to stall the car couple of times on speed bumps near toll barriers. With respect to rear bench head room, I am six feet tall and during the test drive, my head was rubbing against the rear door grab handle. But it was not a deal breaker for our family because they all are of average Indian height and there are no complaints from my wife and mother until now, hopefully it will remain this way. And kids are loving the space rear bench provides, they have kind of marked their territory and we have to often defuse the 'tension' whenever one tries to encroach other's territory!

Lastly, same as you, I would appreciate the perfect driving position in Baleno. I am suffering from lower back pain which happened to me while opening a jammed nut of the punctured tyre in my erstwhile Figo. Was worried when I had to rush for a quick 580 kms Gurugram-Chandigarh round trip yesterday, but at the end of trip, I was relieved that back pain didn’t aggravate at all.

I will come up with my own buying and long-term ownership experiences, this thread will be one of my references. Happy motoring!

[puneetakhouri]

Originally Posted by aravindkumarp

Thanks for the brilliant review. This will help lots of Baleno buyers.

As a fellow Baleno owner, picked the car around the same time - Oct 2015 , I haven't had back/leg pain even after driving 600+ kms in a single day.

Closing in on 4 years and 40K Kms now, and no rattles yet. The touchscreen and ICU functions works great. Voice command have had no issues too.

Build quality is indeed the sore point - lost count of minor scratches, even a very slight bike handle bar touch leaves the car with a noticeable scratch, sometimes even a dent. Quality inside too isnt great - my driver side door handle broke, front reading light glass cover broke, the silver lining around AC switches in the dashboard has a crack. Given its a Maruti, these don't dent your pocket, but feels bad when you see these in a premium hatchback.

Overall a great car that I love to drive despite the minor build issues.

Thanks a lot Yeah the ergonomics are good. Woah! quite a lot of things broke for your vehicle. And rightly said that although they don't dent the pocket, they definitely aren't premium. That also happens to be my main grudge with the vehicle.

Originally Posted by sureshkishore

Since I can relate to each points in your review, my effort to write a review would seem like a cheap imitation of your superb review. So wouldn't make the attempt.

The OEM stereo with the extra Tweeters on the Zeta variant is excellent. Love the clear tone and the modest thump.

Appolo Alnac 4g do not generate much road noise and also have excellent life. Haven't replaced my oe set yet.


Zeta has UV cut glass which makes the AC even more effective than the Delta Sigma variants. Never found issue in the second row. I run my auto ac at 25-26 always. Apart from the cloth lining on the door pad coming off, no other issues.

Hehe thanks! I am sure what you write will be definitely more comprehensive than mine. Waiting for your review!

With regards to the tweeters, yeah you are absolutely right. I forgot to mention that. Even I used to miss the tone so installed after market tweeters at the same spot as they are present in Zeta and Alpha. And the highs are definitely much better now.

A lot of praise I have heard for the UV cut glasses but haven't experienced it myself. Also in Mumbai generally the problem is more of humidity than heat so it kind of works out but any added UV cut would always be beneficial.

What surprises me about your observation the most is that your OE tyres are 69k kms young. Means they have hard compound rubber in them, and yet there is no complain of road noise! Maybe the design uses by Apollo takes care of that and probably thats why even the Polo comes with Alnacs. I will give it a shot once to see how it is on someone's Zeta/Alpha.

Originally Posted by Motor_Nut

Congratulations Punnet and thanks for sharing such a beautiful and befitting long term review. I also own a white 1.2L Baleno Alpha variant, bought in June 2019. It has traveled ~ 1500 kms as on date and I have been enjoying every bit of it.

As you and someone else shared in this thread, I am adjusting to the sharp clutch bite point of Baleno. And kids are loving the space rear bench provides, they have kind of marked their territory and we have to often defuse the 'tension' whenever one tries to encroach other's territory!

I will come up with my own buying and long-term ownership experiences, this thread will be one of my references. Happy motoring!

Thanks a lot waiting for your review. Hehe, yeah the kids would love that acre of space in the rear.
The clutch bite point is definitely one sour point but its just the matter of getting used to. But since the clutch travel in itself is so small so the bite point had to come in sooner than later and it would have been sharp. I like the easy clutch with the small travel, perfect for city drives. Have to live with the sharp bite point though but since I have gotten used to it, I don't mind it now. Hopefully you will get used to it soon !

[Ashir]

Congratulations Puneet for touching the 50k km mark.

I had planned to write a long term ownership review of my 2016, Baleno - Delta (P). However, after reading your comprehensive review, I think mine would only be a repetition!

My Baleno has covered 52k kms in 2.5 years with driving across all kind of terrains and weathers, including a Lahaul & Spiti drive. Till now, driving feels the same as Day 1.

No rattles, No surprises, No abnormal wear & tear.

[puneetakhouri]

Rusting

So last year during monsoons, I just opened my boot one day and found a rust spot just near the boot closing grab handle. I was shocked because the rusting was at the spot where the boot door touches the rubber beading.


I went to a local guy and got it rubbed using sand paper and got it touched up.

Come this year, I notice that the rust has scrapped the touch up and showing up again.



I talked to another local mechanic and he said that there maybe some defect in the door causing this, or some water leakage from somewhere. He suggests waiting till the end of monsoons and then sanding and painting the entire foot long stretch.

Has anybody else faced something similar?

[Ashir]

Originally Posted by puneetakhouri

Rusting
...
Has anybody else faced something similar?

I have not faced such issue and haven't heard about from anyone in my network.

I would highly suggest you to write to the MSIL Customer service and pay a visit to the dealer. If it's not addressed properly, rust can spread to other places of door!

[puneetakhouri]

Originally Posted by Ashir

I have not faced such issue and haven't heard about from anyone in my network.

I would highly suggest you to write to the MSIL Customer service and pay a visit to the dealer. If it's not addressed properly, rust can spread to other places of door!

I had dropped an email to Nexa last year but got no response. I forgot about it in a few days so did not pay much attention. I will be visiting the workshop soon and talk to them. It is not a damage caused by me so insurance definitely won't pay for this. But could/should it be covered in warranty? What do you think?

[Ashir]

Originally Posted by puneetakhouri

I had dropped an email to Nexa last year but got no response. I forgot about it in a few days so did not pay much attention. I will be visiting the workshop soon and talk to them. It is not a damage caused by me so insurance definitely won't pay for this. But could/should it be covered in warranty? What do you think?

It would have been covered in warranty if you had not got it sanded.
Now, there is no way possible to prove that the original paint had allowed rusting.

However, dealer might be able to take care of it out of goodwill by touch up.

[puneetakhouri]

Update - Dent and scratch removal

It's been awhile and I am guilty of not updating this thread frequently which I am determined to do frequently now.

So my car was recently hit by a Rick on the left rear fender, at one of the traffic signals and I thought I should get it repaired under insurance. So my insurance was about to expire and I thought, maybe if I purchase the new insurance first, I will get the NCB bonus and then since my current insurance is still valid, I might claim it under the current one and save the NCB cost . I have a Maruti Insurance which I renew online every year.

TL;DR

• Maruti Insurance is very hassle free. Barring the experience of interacting with the SAs and their slowness, process overall is very smooth and you don't need to do much.
• If you purchased next year's insurance while your current insurance is still active and got an NCB, you will have to refund it if you made any claims in your current insurance after the purchase.
• Satisfactory work done by the workshops.
• Workshops are super slow. I always maintained that Nexa is just glorified MASS with no cabbies. And that's about it.
• Even if you have Maruti Insurance, it is linked to some dealer. Generally the one where you purchased your car from. And if you give your car to some other workshop then claim processing takes time for some unknown reason.
• Never give your car with more than a quarter tank of fuel. I made the mistake of refuleing just a day before handing over the car. When I received it back, 1/4th fuel was gone.

Here is the daily journal of the entire experience

Day 1 Monday -
So I handed over my car to Shivam Autozone MiDC Mumbai. I also had a dent on the front right fender and the SA said that he would get it covered as well which I was not sure of how but he said he can get that done so I played along.

Attaching the pictures of the dent
The one below is the rear left fender which the rick scratched me


And this one is the right fender one which, not surprisingly, was given by another rick


And this is after I got it touched up from a local shop when it had happened. The reason I did not claim insurance back then was because I felt that the new paint would cause a lot of paint difference and I wanted to keep the original paint for as long as possible.


So the SA takes my car and says that it should be ready by the end of the week, and I leave. I get a call in the evening that I will have to refund the NCB amount only then can they initiate a claim process. I was kind of prepared for this so I said ok. The guy says that he will send me a payment link for the same.

Day 2 Tuesday -
I wanted the car for the weekend and would ask updates about where the process had reached but the SAs were very casual in replying. He replied that since my car insurance is from another dealer (Sai Service) so transfer is taking time.

Day 3 Wednesday -
Still no link, I was surprised at their inefficiency. They made all sort of excuses like sms link not getting generated and what not.

Day 4 Thursday -
I finally received the payment link in the evening, I pay immediately. In the evening I receive an sms that insurance claim has been initiated.

Day 5 Friday -
The insurance surveyor called me asking how did I manage to dent two opposite ends in one accident and I told him the story as mentioned to be by my SA and in the evening I receive the SMS that the claim is under process.

Day 6 & 7 Saturday Sunday -
The next day, Saturday I called up the SA who did not pick the call but called me back later and said that the car might have gone into the body shop and should be ready by Tuesday. Also at the same time, I logged into the Nexa app and can see the entry for INR 13757/- for body work updated against my car.

Day 8 Monday -
The SA calls me and says that the car should be ready by Wednesday evening. I was already getting pretty miffed at this because it had been a week out of which they took 3 days just for claim initiation during working days which made me take other expensive options to and fro work. I told the SA clearly that I am not taking the delivery in the evening since it is a paint job and will only take during daytime, so Thursday it should be fine.

Day 9 - Tuesday -
No progress. Neither did I call the SA and neither did he call me.

Day 10 Wednesday -
I called him asking him to confirm that I am coming tomorrow, his reply was that car is almost ready but not complete so come in the evening. I re-iterated again that I am not taking delivery in the evening and will only take during daytime so I will be there on Friday morning. He replies, please come in the afternoon then. I reprimanded him that I am not going to waste any time and by afternoon it means car should be ready and I wont spend any time more than 30 minutes and he agreed.

Day 11 Thursday -
No progress

Day 12 Friday -
I reach the workshop at 2pm as committed. Luckily the SA was standing outside and he said that the car is just being wiped after the wash. He showed me the car. Here are the pics
Front right fender


Left rear fender


One mistake I had done while handing over the car was that I just tanked up last night and so there was almost tankful of fuel in the car. But when I took delivery, the car had just 3/4th tank fuel. I showed it to the SA and he said that the workers sit with AC on. I wanted to ask him to get me a 5 litre coupon for the same but decided to let go for some reason.

I also asked them for the receipt for the NCB refund which they promptly handed over to me. So while I had to pay the processing fee of INR 1000, I took my card out to pay and the cashier says I need to pay 1% extra. I was livid! I warned him that you are not supposed to take this from the customer and I can challenge them legally on this. I also told him that if he wishes so take 1% extra, I need it added to my bill. His face showed that they knew they were doing something wrong. He then sends me a link to pay online for INR 1000 and I finally paid.

Overall a very hassle free experience except for the slowness of the entire process. Workshops are simply glorified as NEXA and are no different to any garage whatsoever.

[puneetakhouri]

Originally Posted by Ashir

It would have been covered in warranty if you had not got it sanded.
Now, there is no way possible to prove that the original paint had allowed rusting.

However, dealer might be able to take care of it out of goodwill by touch up.

I talked to the SA about getting it repaired under warranty. His reply was that body work is not covered under warranty. I told him to confirm it from his senior and he too confirmed the same. It seems to be a defect in my vehicle where the water seems to be accumulating under boot door at a specific point and not draining out from the created channels. It seems I have no option but to get it thoroughly repaired at a local body shop.

[puneetakhouri]

So today a random walk around the car revealed another rusting spot near the front left door handle . What surprises me is that my car stays inside a covered parking at home and travels to covered parking in office. It is seldom exposed to the elements unless I go out of town so rusting is something that I was not expecting so early.

I had dropped an email to Maruti last year as well when the first rust spot appeared on my boot door where the door touches the rubber beading. They never replied so I got it sanded and touched up. But this year the sanded and repainted part has been damaged yet again by rust showing a greater problem under the door. Add to that the rust under the door handle. I was talking to fellow Baleno owners on the Baleno Owners Club Mumbai group and one of them reported facing similar issue. Although I can get it repaired locally, but I would want Maruti to respond to this. Also I had plans to keep the vehicle for around 7-8 years but looking at how the body isn't holding well, I might have to reconsider my decision.

Just a question to fellow BHPians, how normal is rusting in a 4 year old car? And let me rephrase that question, how normal is rusting in a 4 year old Maruti?

Attaching Images

This is the boot door part




And this is the door handle

[puneetakhouri]

Update

So today I received a call from Shivam Autozone MIDC, and the CRM said that she has received the call from Maruti. They will be inspecting my car and will be repairing the rusted areas as a goodwill even thought my warranty has expired and they do not give body work warranty.
These, I feel, are the small things which make the ownership experience so pleasant and make you a customer for life.