[mayankjha1806]

Dreams are Dreams, and they will always be

We both drive and way back in 2005 when we took turns to drive our Indica Lxi Petrol (Can you believe that I bought a Indica Petrol in Chennai, probably the only petrol Indica sold in 2001) and took it all over the place in south.

Slowly the Indica post 5 years started giving troubles like the radiator fan problem (which I have seen in almost all the indicas of that time), and we thought of buying a bigger ride.

What’s the need? How many people? What’s the budget? Petrol or Diesel?

All these questions didn’t make sense to us, as we both are feeling drives.

One more car, kiske liye (That’s what elders told, Bas aise hi).

Big car kyun kharidi? (Well what the heck we expand always, and end up using as much space as we have got. This applies to house and everything else).

What’s the budget sir? (Don’t know? Haven’t decided anything about that? What is a good budget to have)

Honda (City) was driven like it was being driven on a race track by wifey (I still remember the SCARY look of SA at the back seat).

Corsa was tried, liked but felt no enthusiasm in driving it.

Swift was also driven, loved the peppy nature. But we already have a small car!

Santro/Getz was also driven but same response as above.

Finally Baleno was driven. Amazing pickup, cool free revving engine, good AC, good low stance and road grip. Finally the discount from MSIL, and free insurance did the deal and we booked our Black Baleno in Sept 2005 and picked up the car in Oct 2005.

In last 5 years she has completed 48k clicks, so you see we haven’t been driving her too much. Mostly been used for our long drives and wifey dropping kid to school.

Give her smooth roads (like Bangalore -> Chennai GQ stretch) and she flies, give her bad roads (Pondicherry -> Bangalore, had some really bad stretches because of rains) and she will come out without even a single underbody thud and will beat all the others (more expensive cars behind).

In last five years she has seen Chennai (a few times), Pondicherry, Ooty, Bandipur, Pune->Mumbai->Pune (a number of times), Wayanad, Madumalai, Coorg, Shirdi, Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani. And did not spend a lot of time in garage for maintenance. Here is a summary

• Spend about 30k (Self) and 60K (Insurance) once after my cars front hit another car’s behind. Had to change radiators, bumper and some body work etc.
• Spent about 18K after she completed 5 years on new shoes for her (Bridgestone tubeless)
• Spent about 15K after she completed 5 years on some break shoe and Wheel bearing changes, carpet change (As the old one got wet when roads in Bangalore were flooded).
• Don’t remember any major apart form regular oil changes and wash etc.
• She still manages a FE of over 12 with AC on most of the time in Bangalore traffic.
• Planning to keep her for at least another 2 years or so as she is still gem to drive.

BUT we both are dreaming again

[supremeBaleno]

Nice report. But you could add some snaps too.

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

Can you believe that I bought a Indica Petrol in Chennai, probably the only petrol Indica sold in 2001) and took it all over the place in south.

There is a petrol indica in my apartment complex and when the guy bought it many years ago, I thought he must be nuts to buy petrol. Inspite of being petrol, it makes a huge racket - not sure if it is with all Indica-Ps or only his car.

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

Finally Baleno was driven. Amazing pickup, cool free revving engine, good AC, good low stance and road grip. Finally the discount from MSIL, and free insurance did the deal and we booked our Black Baleno in Sept 2005 and picked up the car in Oct 2005.

Reads like my buying experience. I bought my Black LXi in March 2005. Is yours a LXi or VXi ? How much did you pay for the car ?

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

In last 5 years she has completed 48k clicks, so you see we haven’t been driving her too much.

My car is at 46K currently. During the initial 3 years I was car-pooling and so car was used only alternate days, hence the low mileage.

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

Spent about 18K after she completed 5 years on new shoes for her (Bridgestone tubeless). She still manages a FE of over 12 with AC on most of the time in Bangalore traffic.

Did the tread on the OE tryes wear off or you changed tyres just because it had done 5 years ? Asking because, my OE bridgestone tyres are like new, even after 46K kms. My FE in Chennai with 100% a/c is also 12kmpl.

[mayankjha1806]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Nice report. But you could add some snaps too. .

Yes pictures will be uploaded, baby needs a good wash before photo session . Also need to figure out how to upload pics.

Reads like my buying experience. I bought my Black LXi in March 2005. Is yours a LXi or VXi ? How much did you pay for the car ?

Mine is a VXi

Did the tread on the OE tryes wear off or you changed tyres just because it had done 5 years ? Asking because, my OE bridgestone tyres are like new, even after 46K kms. My FE in Chennai with 100% a/c is also 12kmpl.

Yes the threads had worn off, and hence it needed replacement as i also had frequent puntures. Changed all five.

Sorry, dont exactly remember how much i paid for it. I think 6.5L or something like that (This was after about 70K discount from MSIL). I may be wrong though (Its been a long long time)

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[dhanushs]

Baleno is a great car!. . Its free revving engine and amazing highway stability wakes the enthusiast in you.

Some pics would be appreciated!.

[v&v]

mayankjha1806, Baleno is a fantastic car of its time. I am still owning one. 11th year ON and 103k Kms. Spares may not be a issue for another 3 - 4 years. The consistant issue i faced was with power windows.

By the by did you upsize tyres on replacement. Upload some photos too.

[mayankjha1806]

Nope, i did not upsize my tyres. Although i think spares is a problem (in some cases). For example my radio antenna motor is broken and needs to be replaced. Folks are not able to get that and replace (Its a Suzuki part rather than Maruti part, hence the delay), also when i changed the carpet it took them more than a month to get a replacement.

BTW i have noticed some rattling sound from the dashboard, need to get it looked at (Anyone has faced this problem)?

[noopster]

What are the ehgine specs of the Baleno? Somehow I always remember this car as "overpriced"- I bought an Accent GLS in Mumbai in 2000-01 for 6.84lac on road and don't recall Baleno on my consideration set then. Time blurs the memory!

[mayankjha1806]

How do i make out if the battery life is getting close to over? Somtimes when i crank up the engine it feels that the battery is getting loaded (Same feeling as when battery is down and there is a slow gerr-gerr sound before it picks up). How long does a battery lasts? mine is over 5 years old already.

[mayankjha1806]

Originally Posted by noopster

What are the ehgine specs of the Baleno? Somehow I always remember this car as "overpriced"- I bought an Accent GLS in Mumbai in 2000-01 for 6.84lac on road and don't recall Baleno on my consideration set then. Time blurs the memory!

Its a 1.6L engine, yes you are right it was overpriced earlier until MSIL started giving huge discounts on it. This was around 2005 when the discounts made the price of Baleno come down,

[mayankjha1806]

Here are some pictures, although they havent come out great. Cheers

[WhiteKnight]

Nice review. Your's seem to be the one of the first batch of the euro III Balenos.

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

How long does a battery lasts? mine is over 5 years old already.

Change it immediately. Sometimes OE battery lasts quite long. Your case seem to be one of those.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

Sorry, dont exactly remember how much i paid for it. I think 6.5L or something like that (This was after about 70K discount from MSIL).

Seems correct. I paid 5.8L for the LXi and I remember the Vxi being around 6.4L at Chennai. In hindsight, I wish I had gone for the VXi.

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

How long does a battery lasts? mine is over 5 years old already.

Dude, you are lucky your battery lasted that long. The norm is 3-4 years in most cases. Get it changed because it is not a nice thing to be stranded in the midst of traffic with everyone honking at you.

Originally Posted by noopster

What are the ehgine specs of the Baleno? Somehow I always remember this car as "overpriced"- I bought an Accent GLS in Mumbai in 2000-01 for 6.84lac on road and don't recall Baleno on my consideration set then.

1.6l, 94bhp in 2000, later detuned to 91bhp. You are right in that it was priced around 8L when launched.

[shivmarwaha]

Cool guys. I have a baleno five years old, done seventy one thousand on the odo, still as peppy as it was new. No resale value, so decided to keep it for atleast three more years.

[procircuit_234]

baleno is great car.i am big fan of this car.i own two.one with big back.(altura)

[siddd]

Even I have a Jan 2005 Baleno LXi (Silver) done over 48K km and its still as good as new. No major work required till now...all body panels, bumpers, bulbs, etc are original. Bridgestone tyres haven't needed replacement and are still good to go many more kms. Must have spent a less than Rs 10,000 on mechanical maintenance since I bought it over 6 years ago...talks a lot about Suzuki engineering. Getting an average of 11-13 km/L on Calcutta city roads. Accessories added on are sun film, grey perforated art leather seat covers, leather steering wheel cover, plastics hub covers and a Kenwood music system with 4 Sony Xplod speakers. Also got the centre console painted silver like in the VXi. Can click and upload pictures if anyone desires.