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-   -   Maruti Baleno : Official Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/171209-maruti-baleno-official-review-171.html)

Most likely :)

Yes, the location is almost same. I need to bend down and check later. If it is not easy, I will get it checked at Maruti.

I took a video of "guide me to car lights " :)
https://youtu.be/EUpi-rMHywE
This is a good feature and can easily locate the car in dark parking lots. Follow me home lights are also there, you have to pull the headlight stalk when in auto mode after switching off the engine.

I have booked a Baleno alpha cvt and is in transit. My RM is not sure whether it is a 2017 or 2018 model. Does anyone know if Maruti has started shipping 2018 balenos? Baleno owners driven more than 10k kms, can you confirm if the stock 16 inch Apollo Alnacs are noisy after some wear? I plan to swap it out for michelins of the same size if they are noisy. Thanks.

I find the Apollo tires noisy from day 1, haven't bothered to change them since the music usually drowns out the tire noise. With no music the noise is certainly intrusive and somewhat annoying to say the least.

Here's my 8 months review on my Baleno.

Variant : Zeta 1.2 Petrol (Ray blue)
KM driven : 5010
Accessories added : Biege leatherette seat covers, Window visors
Accessories planned for future : Dash Cam, speakers upgrade with a 4 channel amp, LED DRLs.

The Goods :
1. Super refined engine. Very smooth drive. Only the tachometer can tell you that the engine is running.
2. SPACE, loads and loads of it. A proper 5 seater with a humongous boot.
3. Has a low decibel sporty growl at higher rpms which you can hear only with the audio muted. It's addictive
4. Exceptional fuel efficiency (atleast per my standards as I have shifted from a palio S10). The worst I got in traffic with 100% A/c is 14 and best 17. On the highways the best i got was 29 and worst 24 with not exceeding 100 KMPH.
5. Some cool features which are very helpful like the UV cut glass, Auto dimming rear view mirror, find my car and find me home lights.


The Bads :
1. The infamous build quality. Doesn't need any explanation.
2. Poor brakes. I feel the brakes could be much better. i20, jazz are a league higher on this.
3. Ride quality/Suspension : Though my car has the revised suspension set up I am still not happy with the ride quality. I am comparing this with the numerous etios, xcents, aspires and swift dzire cabs i have traveled. The Baleno's suspension is no where close to any one not even it's close sibling the dzire.
4. Poor Fog lamp visibility. I guess this is more to do with the housing. The wagonr and swift's fog lamps look much brighter and functional.

Overall, barring the bads I love this car. No rattles/squeaks till date (touchwood).

The above are purely based on my own experience. My exposure to cars is very little hence some points might be surprising and unusual for most of you.

Hope to create my own ownership thread soon.

We recently bought a Ciaz and changed the tyres out of the showroom to Michelins. To be honest I did not find any difference in noise level compared to the outgoing apollos. In my experience, these apollos are not very noisy when new. Once they run about 3000 kms they start to get noisy. I am surprised it was noisy from the start for you! Anyways, it is an indicator that I should change it right out of the showroom. Thanks for the input.

I changed mine to Michelins after about 2-3 months. You won't get the same spec in Michelins. Check out my earlier post on this discussion.

Is there a major difference in FE of manual and CVT. Owners are reporting varied FE numbers. One of my colleagues own a CVT & the other a manual, have reported that CVT is less by approx 4 kmpl in city.Not sure about highways. ARAI certified both the same. Am I missing something.

Well, this is quite interesting.

Look at this way, with CVT & MT having same claimed figures, I thought that the CVT would be a better choice with respect to convenience.

But 4 kmpl is quite a lot. I guess Manual will return around 14 kmpl in city. CVT are known for Efficiency. But, with such low figures, I am wondering if this only CVT in Maruti lineup actually is a TC box ? Only other car to have it was Kizashi, but it's no longer there, rest of the other cars use TC/AMT.

The Petrol Manual felt very peppy. Yet to drive a CVT. If the CVT is not as efficient as manual and not as peppy, Manual will be the preferred choice. I am looking at this car again, had bought one in 2016, but that was handed over to my BIL. It was actually his car.

Baleno CVT owners please comment on the FE you're getting, especially in City conditions.

I have a Baleno Delta CVT from July'17 onwards, my car is largely driven for short distances and by my mother for her 20 km daily commute, it has done 5500kms till date and has never returned below 12.5 kmpl, the overall mileage for these 5500 kms has been 13.5+ and when i had the car on open roads with light traffic for some days, it has always returned >16 kmpl.
My father once took it on the highway, getting 18+ Kmpl easily, so no complaints w.r.t mileage.
Also, i had a ritz zxi 2010 earlier with the same engine that used to give 15 kmpl overall. Baleno Manual would certainly do a 16 kmpl on that route, so yes, there's an overall difference of around 2 kmpl.But the convenience is worth it and much better than the AMT's available at the same price, also the torque convertors of the hyundai's don't go into double digits usually, so it is all the more impressive.

My 2016 Zeta CVT is now at 18K kms.

I have constantly been getting 13kmpl in city and 17-18kmpl in highways.

Is the car already allotted to your name ? Insist the dealer to provide you with the VIN though in transit. They should be able to pull out of their system.

Check the VIN to see the manufacturing month and date and you should have a fair idea.

And also tell your dealer that you will make a part of the payment only after you see the car and confirm the VIN which is allotted to you.

My Zeta CVT with around 4250 on odo averages around 12-13 in Chennai
Best was 14.
Both purely on city and some ring road driving (with speed mostly within 100) Yet to try on a long drive on a highway, probably after it hits 5k in odo

It is not allotted in my name most probably as I have been offered a car which was cancelled/deferred by another customer. I am not in a position to insist on anything either, as that would mean waiting for atleast 6 weeks. After booking and cancelling the baleno once, and flirting with the new ecosport for a while, I am impatient and is taking whatever I am getting. I hope it is a 2018 since these are in great demand and is highly unlikely to have been lying in a yard for long. I dont see any reason for Maruti to ship a hot selling 2017 manufactured Baleno in 2018.

Update : AC blower sound

I took the car to service centre. They removed the AC blower motor and cleaned it. The sound was still present. The new part was not in stock and order has been placed. It would be changed free of cost under warranty :)

Perhaps a bit of a late reply, but..
I had specifically asked for a 2018 model at the time of booking in October, and my RM just called me today and told me that my car has been allotted. He shared the VIN - and its a 2018 manufacture. :)