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-   -   Maruti Baleno : Official Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/171209-maruti-baleno-official-review-64.html)

I had booked a Baleno AT (the Blue colour) in mid to third week of February. At the time I was told of a 6 month waiting period.

However, Bagga Motors' (Delhi, Kotla Mubarakpur area, opposite Def Colony) horrible sales service and lousy attitude in sharing information led me to cancel the booking soon afterwards.

This morning the sales associate called me to say that my "car was ready". While the Baleno is not the car for me, I thought I'd share the update so people here can get one more data point about wait times.

Have any Baleno owners got their Airbag software upgraded after the callback?
More details into the issue will be appreciated!

The process will start from June 2016. I had been to the service center yesterday to give my car for some minor denting painting, the service guys said that they will start calling customers in June and get the recall fixed. As per yesterday, they had no information on what needs to be done.

Also, the official notification on NEXA site states that the recall will happen after 31st May 2016.

If you have booked baleno, your wait got longer....

Quoted from Carandbike:

"Country's leading car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki India has announced a temporary production suspension at the Manesar and Gurugram plant. The company today issued an official statement saying that owing to an unfortunate fire accident at the Manesar facilities of its top supplier, Subros Limited, supplies of components from that plant has been disrupted. As a result, the company will have to temporarily shut down production of cars at both its facilities effective May 30, 2016.
The fire accident at Subros Limited's plant took place on Sunday May 29 and is believed to be a major one. In its official statement Maruti Suzuki India said, "Subros Limited and Maruti Suzuki are jointly assessing the extent of damage to essential equipment. We are also examining the options available to start supply of components from other facilities. Production will resume as soon as components become available."
:Frustrati

Hi,

I'm planning to book the Baleno Sigma Diesel @ Rs. 7.3 lacs OTR. There is no Nexa dealership in my home town, Trivandrum yet, and I'll have to book from Cochin. They have promised to give a test drive, "when the vehicle is available in Trivandrum". I've been asked for Rs. 11000/- as token booking amount, and they assured a 6-7 months waiting period for the diesel and 4-5 months for the petrol.

Should I go ahead and put down this cash to ensure a place in the queue, or wait for the Nexa showroom in Trivandrum to finish construction in about 2-3months and then hopefully get to the first of the queue here?

I know there's no chance of any discounts, but is there any comparable alternative in terms of features to the Baleno? Also, considering that my monthly running is unlikely to exceed 1500 kms, and that I'll be getting 25L of fuel paid as conveyance from office, does it make sense to go for the petrol Delta version instead? ICE is a big priority for me. I have a sub and front comps in my current car, and I aim to transfer that setup into my new car. Or, should I go for the Sigma Petrol and use the money saved on ICE and alloys?

You have made a good choice with Sigma variant. Currently, there aren't many more cars at that price point, offering safety features. Your thought of going for Petrol is sensible too.

25 L in Baleno should cover 350 km. The remaining 1150 km, falls in grey area where you can go with either petrol or diesel. With the money saved initally, you can go in for a wonderful ICE and alloys. I remember seeing a white baleno with Momo alloys (similar pic attached, and salivating over it)

Hey! Are you sure you want to stick with bare-bones Sigma variant?
The features in Delta variant like Rear Wash and Wiper, Defogger, ACC, Electric Folding ORVMS are some of the useful features which cannot be added later.
Also, factory fit is a factor fit. Period.

Attaching a comparison sheet from another thread.


Also, If you can afford the diesel, stick to it. After all 1.3MJD is a national Engine.lol:

Why should you block money on under construction showroom? Wait till it begins with the operations.

Dear friends,

Is it just my car (Baleno CVT) or are all having the same issue as me, that being that Fuel Economy has fallen from a good 14.5 km/l to 13.8 km/l. All this in the last month only.
The AC use is continuous as was before too. I understand the summer and it falling to 14 or so, but I get this nagging feeling that it could still drop.

Any thoughts on that front?

Well its not a significant drop but anyways there can be many factors which can effect the FE:
-Change in driving habits, routes, denser traffic.
-The quality of fuel(in case you have changed your usual bunk for refueling)
-Tire Pressure/Upgrade
-Too much junk in the car boot
-Dirty Fuel injectors/Air filters

Few of these you can check, for other may be head on to the service center and get checked if the FE drop is drastic.
PS: details like Kilometers done and services history would help fellow BHPians further when responding. :thumbs up

Motorbeam has posted an article about 'BigDaddy Customs', a car tuning house based out of New Delhi.

Link

One of their latest projects is on the Baleno and the article has the modifications done on this car.

Man, just a simple swap of some great rims can change a bland looking car into a complete drool drive clap:

I can spot momos right away from a distance. The momo revenge really enhance the looks of the car and transform it into a more sprightly looking rally car. cpics:

I meant that I could either book my car at an out of town showroom now, or wait till the showroom here finishes construction and book it here then. I might save a month or more if I book now.

I'm not particularly keen on driving a brand new unregistered car 250 kms on very dangerous Kerala NH, and even less keen on having it delivered here by the showroom drivers who will abuse it on the drive here.

I'm hoping that the newly opened dealership will get a few early deliveries to keep their customer base happy, and hoping to be among the first to book. But, if waiting for the new showroom means delaying my delivery that much forward, then it makes sense to book now.

The reason I am interested in the Sigma variant is because I was originally planning on upgrading to a newer compact sedan at the same price point. But I realised that most of the current compact sedans don't have enough of a boot space advantage over premium hatches, and all of them are ugly. Also, all of them have mid-hatch level space inside, and have mid-hatch level ride and handling characteristics.

Settling for the Sigma variant means I can go for the diesel in my budget, and with the prices going steadily up, the extra kpl might turn out to be worth foregoing the other stuff, especially as the Sigma has the basics and safety features.

But as procastinator said, factory fit is factory fit, as I rightly know from owing a full option car for the last six years. Everything that was factory fitted, like the defogger, power windows, chrome beadings, fog lamps etc have worked right as rain, while the extra items I added, like the Bosch horns and reverse sensors to the audio system, give intermittent issues due to poor workmanship. To get all this fitted right, I might end up spending a lot more than 80k in the long run. Still I'd like a bit more advice in this regard, and I'll be doing a bit more research. Thanks for the replies, and I'd appreciate more insights in the matter from everyone.

The Nexa showroom in Trivandrum has already started taking bookings from last week itself.

They will be getting their first lot of cars mid next week including the display and test drive ones.

Any idea which dealer is supporting this Trivandrum NEXA? Indus/ Popular?

It is a new group, as per my understanding.