Team-BHP - Maruti Baleno : Official Review

Quote:

Originally Posted by bimbrahw (Post 4238320)

There should be some upgrade package for Zeta CVT customers. I am feeling cheated since I wanted to buy alpha but bought Zeta only because CVT was not available in Alpha.

No offence meant, but it doesn't work that way. I am sure you knew there was no Alpha variant while buying the car and even if there was, it was in the end the customer's choice to opt for Zeta.

I don't think even Amazon would be entertaining such requests and it is too much to ask from a manufacturer selling lakhs of cars every month. What they can do is if they are issuing a recall for rear suspension, do it free of cost for all owners of the Baleno since its inception.

Maruti did refund some money for the S-Cross but that was because of a huge price cut. Even though unofficially they had discounts amounting to that money going on during the end of the year.

Need some help/advice from Baleno petrol users:

With my last car which was a diesel, that I drove for 100K+ km, I never once had to use the accelerator while releasing the clutch in 1st gear, and not even for crawling in traffic. It also almost never stalled in 1st gear.

I am finding it difficult to adjust to the clutch release at low (standstill/crawling) speeds on my petrol Baleno. This results at stalling more frequently than I would like, especially in bumper to bumper traffic or taking u-turns on busy city streets where timing is very important etc. I do realize that it does not have the low-end torque of the diesel, but nevertheless I haven't seen this problem while driving other petrol cars, including smaller ones, so I am wondering if there is a technical issue, or an adjustment on my part that needs to be made.

So my questions are:

1>I had the clutch play adjusted (or at least the SA told me that he did it) at first service, but I still feel like the play/range around which the biting point is too narrow, i.e the biting point is very sharp and not amenable to starting off easily. In other words the clutch play range where the transmission engages is too narrow and hence requires a lot of precision failing which the car stalls. There are also a lot of vibrations through the entire chassis felt while in that narrow range, something that wasn't the case even with my diesel car. Any idea if that is normal, and if something should or can be done to fix that?

2>With my petrol car, I am finding, due to the above reasons that I am having to use the accelerator every time I release the clutch almost, to avoid stalling, even when not on a slope etc. Is this normal for a petrol car? And can doing so damage the clutch (I am not driving any distance at half-clutch, just using the accelerator before the clutch is fully released, to get moving)?

3>For gears 1 and 2 only, I find that I can only shift if the clutch is depressed all the way down, which makes quick shifting difficult. On gears 3-5 a slight jab of the clutch (without pressing it all the way down) is enough to shift smoothly without any grinding etc. Any idea if this is normal or something that needs to be checked?

4>I find the clutch itself a bit hard and diesel like (or harder than my old DDIS diesel clutch in fact) and most petrol cars including the test drive balenos seemed to be much lighter and effortless from what I remember. Any idea what could be the problem here, or is it all in my mind?

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chncar (Post 4238555)

2>With my petrol car, I am finding, due to the above reasons that I am having to use the accelerator every time I release the clutch almost, to avoid stalling, even when not on a slope etc. Is this normal for a petrol car? And can doing so damage the clutch (I am not driving any distance at half-clutch, just using the accelerator before the clutch is fully released, to get moving)?

I exclusively drive a diesel all the time and during those odd times I get sat in a petrol, I rev mildly to get off on 1st gear. Having our senses getting used to the torque of a diesel, there's a slight learning curve to adapt to a petrol. That said, petrols don't produce their peak torque at low RPMs and this leads to shaky starts if not done right. Mild revving to start off on a petrol shouldn't do much damage to the clutch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chncar (Post 4238555)

3>For gears 1 and 2 only, I find that I can only shift if the clutch is depressed all the way down, which makes quick shifting difficult. On gears 3-5 a slight jab of the clutch (without pressing it all the way down) is enough to shift smoothly without any grinding etc. Any idea if this is normal or something that needs to be checked?

Never half clutch to shift your gears. This is the biggest damage you could do to your clutch plate and gear synchronisers. The clutch has to be depressed fully for all gears.

Hey guys, I am the owner of a Baleno diesel, Alpha model 2016. I too had the suspension related complaints and had a word with one of the nexa regional heads and he admitted that the rear suspensions are being changed for the 2016 manufactured vehicles. But he also said that the front suspensions had no recall and that Maruti is changing the rear suspensions for only the customers who raised their complaints against the same which IMO is downright cheapselling by Maruti. Further I had faced another issue of water entering the left side of the car, both front and rear during a heavy downpour. The car was stationery and had the water level reach the bottom of the doors. On questioning him, he said that all maruti vehicles face the same problem and that there are internal vents kept for air passing or for letting the car 'breathe' which if the car passes through high standing water on roads would lead to the water getting inside the cabin of the car. Has anyone else faced this issue of water seepage. And let me tell you, the water only came in from the left side of the car and was buckets load of water which was taken out. The right side was completely dry:Shockked: .

Quote:

Originally Posted by SchumiFan (Post 4238325)

No offence meant, but it doesn't work that way. I am sure you knew there was no Alpha variant while buying the car and even if there was, it was in the end the customer's choice to opt for Zeta.

Maruti did refund some money for the S-Cross but that was because of a huge price cut. Even though unofficially they had discounts amounting to that money going on during the end of the year.

My view is based on my interaction with Maruti at the time of buying the Zeta CVT when I questioned them as to why the CVT is not made available in Alpha variant. They gave some reasoning of the Zeta CVT being costlier than the stick shift Alpha variant and then further touching the next segment price range. I also offered to pay them extra for upgrading my Zeta to Alpha but they declined. My view is Maruti should leave it upto the customer to judge what he wants. Atleast launch the variant. The reason why they have now launched it in Alpha probably seems not much demand for Alpha variant in the stick shift model.

I identify myself as a person who went in for a CVT Zeta (though being costlier than a stick shift Alpha) purely because I was willing to pay extra for the comfort that a CVT provides (even at the cost of higher fuel consumption) and am still willing to buy an upgrade package despite the fact that my car has clocked just 4000 kms in 10 months only because I am a crazy aficionado for the good things in automobiles and yes the LED DRL's and the Apple car play do entice me. I junked my 1000 kms old Apollo Alnac 4G tyres and replaced them with Michelins just for comfort.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Djay (Post 4239081)

Took another test drive of the CVT today. While the Sports mode is useful for overtaking, the NEXA RM mentioned that I can use the 'L' mode for major / critical overtaking maneuvers. On shifting to L the RPMs shoot past the 3K mark and sure enough give an effect similar to downshifting.

Was wondering what effect it has on the engine and whether it's a good idea to occasionally switch to the L mode and back to D while overtaking. I had heard that it's mainly for use on slopes.

I am a pretty spirited driver and have never felt the need to use sport mode or L mode. You are right, L mode is to be used on very steep slopes. In fact coming out of a mall basement parking also does not require S or L mode.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Djay (Post 4239081)

I'm not familiar with the Baleno CVT, but in most cars the 'Low' mode not only downshifts but keeps the car locked to a low gear. So the appropriate use of it would be to go up and down slopes etc and not for general overtaking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Djay (Post 4239081)

Took another test drive of the CVT today. On shifting to L the RPMs shoot past the 3K mark and sure enough give an effect similar to downshifting.

Was wondering what effect it has on the engine and whether it's a good idea to occasionally switch to the L mode and back to D while overtaking. I had heard that it's mainly for use on slopes.

There is a 'Sports' mode button to the right of the gear stick. The L mode as chncar says is for getting the car to hold to a low gear and mainly to be used when coming down the hill or slope to prevent over exertion on the brakes. The information about the Sports mode button is available in the first page of this review right where the CVT review starts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chncar (Post 4239366)