[no_boundaries]

ODO@1900KM

With 2 long drives completed, one to Mysore and other to Chennai, over last 2 weeks, I got 19.8KMPL to Mysore and 18.7KMPL to Chennai. I diligently maintained 100 - 110KMPH without any aggressive acceleration or drop in gears.

Few observations -
1. AGS still fumbles and is slow to respond to acceleration input. There is 0 sense of urgency and all overtaking requires planning and careful 360 observation. The wonderful engine is limited by this gearbox
2. The brakes are still not sharp and still has a sponge effect. Need to sort this with the MASS
3. During peak summers, the AC work pretty well. I also got sunfilm installed on the front and rear windshield, probably that's adding too
4. The suspension is soft and absorbs bad roads very well however this affects the ride stability, especially on curving, winding roads
5. The dead pedal placement is not comfortable with any seat adjustment
6. Audio clarity has improved and the sound output with apple music on lossless format is amazing
7. Irresponsibly missed the 1st service at 1000kms. I will be taking the car in shortly. Its been very hectic and really wish MASS had doorstep service

A recent pic taken @Besant Nagar, Chennai

[volkman10]

Maruti Baleno gets a first-in-segment safety update.

Basic safety equipment now offered for the rear-middle passenger for the first time in the premium hatchback segment.

Likely to be offered with the Baleno’s Toyota counterpart, the Glanza, soon too.

Link

[Venkatesh]

2023 Maruti Baleno gets safety upgrade - rear seats get 3 headrest, 3-point seatbelts.





Source

[RijuC]

Originally Posted by no_boundaries

Few observations -
1. AGS still fumbles and is slow to respond to acceleration input. There is 0 sense of urgency and all overtaking requires planning and careful 360 observation. The wonderful engine is limited by this gearbox

Did you try in Manual mode? Take it to manual, one down and complete the overtake, come back to Auto mode again.

I did this in Ignis AGS and it works good.

[CentreOfGravity]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Maruti Baleno gets a first-in-segment safety update.

Haven't Hyundai started offering adjustable headrests for all passengers and three point seat belts in the i20 from April 2023? So they aren't segment first, are they? Do correct me if I'm wrong though.

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

2023 Maruti Baleno gets safety upgrade - rear seats get 3 headrest, 3-point seatbelts.

Attachment 2446580

Attachment 2446581

Source

Hope the seat belt reminders, if there are any, aren't faulty like on the Fronx

[Maverick_4662]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

2023 Maruti Baleno gets safety upgrade - rear seats get 3 headrest, 3-point seatbelts.

Seeing all the seatbelts buckled in, is this the same nonsense MSIL pulled in the Fronx where all belts need to be buckled irrespective of whether the seat is occupied or not?

[Shree89]

Adjustable headrest were a norm in 2000's Maruti Suzuki Models, starting from WagonR. In their peak, they cut these feature and didn't bother to look into the safety aspect. Now back to square one.
Not sure, when they'll include rear wash & wipe in base models. Its a key safety feature for Indian monsoon.

[pankajn1702]

Originally Posted by no_boundaries

ODO@1900KM

1. AGS still fumbles and is slow to respond to acceleration input. There is 0 sense of urgency and all overtaking requires planning and careful 360 observation. The wonderful engine is limited by this gearbox

As someone above pointed out, switching to manual mode brings out the best of both worlds - enables a bit of enthusiastic drive, especially when you want to overtake and secondly you feel more engaged with the car.
I own the Glanza S AMT - 2023

In Manual mode (I find both of the below very useful)
1. Upshifts - you decide, can take it upto 6000 RPM (I have gone until 4k RPM few times)
2. Downshift - even if you don't, below 1500 rpm, gearbox will downshift

[Kln]

Very disappointing PR spin in the headline 'extra safety features at NO EXTRA COST'. As if this so called "extra" safety is something you should be paying for. These features should've been present since day one!
Ideal journalism would be the headline 'Maruti finally gives its highest selling car the bare minimum safety features after failing every standardised safety test internationally'.

[Motorhead1203]

Originally Posted by no_boundaries

Congratulations and happy motoring.

I can confirm that they've removed this feature, brought my Baleno home in Feb 2023

However, i also know that you can get this feature added back to your car by taking it to the service center
The part number is 36210-54G30
Part name is lamp_assy door_illumination

It costs around 500 rupees, and the service center guys are happy to add it back, however you can probably get it done for free since it's supposed to be a default feature of the car and not some extra accessory.
(I believe xuv700 owners whose cars didn't come with sequential indicators due to chip shortage got it reinstalled at a later day for free.)

[megazoid]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

A few days ago, we brought home a new Maruti Baleno AGS Zeta.

Its a shame the experience turned out so bad. Thankfully, the car isn't like them. Many congratulations.

[driver52001]

Many congratulations! Baleno handles much better than the Ignis and the suspension is also better tuned. However, I felt it to be a bit claustrophobic, coming from the Ignis, when i took a colleague's new Baleno for a spin. Wishing many happy kms.

[firingpistonz]

Hi there everyone. I am in the market for our second car, mainly a city car and occasional highway runs. Ignis was our first choice since last year. Spoiled by the launch of Jimny, i got distracted. Now I have come back to my senses and decided need to buy a hatchback and narrowed it down to Ignis and Tiago. Spent hours and many test drives deciding between the two. Loved the road manners of the tiago and its ride quality is unparalleled. But finally decided to go with the Ignis, because : engine+gearbox combo is insanely good, better looking than tiago and peace of mind on owning a Maruti.

Now I had decided on going ahead with the booking and visited a Nexa to talk to the SA, and I see a Baleno Delta on the showroom floor. Enquired, and I was shocked with the price difference in Bangalore. Here the Ignis Zeta MT is 8.76L on-road. While Baleno Delta MT is just below 9L. both have around 20K discounts. Now I'm completely confused and I require your expert help.

1) Baleno seems like a significant upgrade, interior and exterior when compared to Ignis. Feels like night and day.
2) Ride quality was better(for me) in the Baleno, felt plusher in bad roads, while Ignis was not so great.
3) Some features are missing in the delta Variant in Baleno compared to the zeta in Ignis and I'm ok with it.
4) The price difference is very less, baffled by the fact that the Ignis has gotten so expensive in less than 6 months.
5) The self centring steering issue is not present in the Baleno, while noticable in Ignis (still not as bad as in Celerio)

Request the baleno owners to help me here on the following points
1) Baleno feels much bigger, inside and outside, which will be a better city car amongst the two? If I go with Baleno will it be unmanageable in narrow roads?
2) Will there be a significant change in fuel efficiency between the two? The SA says the Baleno is almost and sometimes more efficient than the Ignis as it has the dualjet engine. Is this true?

We already have a crossover and we have problems with its size(narrow roads) and intracity mileage(ours is dismal) . So this car needs to be easily manageable in narrow roads and bumper-to-bumper traffic and should return decent fuel economy, atleast more than 14kmpl within city, otherwise defeats the whole purpose of buying a car.

3) I'm planning NOT to buy extended warranty for either cars, Is this a good idea? Reason being we had three Maruti suzuki cars for around 15 yrs and none of them had any major issues.
3) Should I go ahead with Baleno Delta, because the price difference is almost negligible?

Sorry for the cross-posting as I have posted the same query in the Ignis thread.

Need you help with these queries. I'm literally spending sleepless nights and need to book a car immediately. All suggestions are welcome.

[no_boundaries]

ODO@3800kms - Observations post 1900kms drive to Pune and back to Bangalore

1. Overall mileage was 20kmpl. What helped was driving between 90 - 100km/hr and using cruise control mostly. I did burst to 121km/hr on some stretches where the rpm rose to 3200 and the beeper would go off. They could have at least used a polyphonic alert on their premium offering
   
2. I tried the manual mode, it helped certainly but it defeats the purpose of buying an automatic. Coming from a Celerio AGS, the AGS on the Baleno is still bad and leaves a lot to desire at highway speeds. The response and feedback to acceleration input is very very slow. What I like is it still holds the higher gear and the engine does a great job to pull through. A manual gear shift would have been remarkable here, I guess hence the manual option . Yet, the gearbox must be competent enough to handle such mundane situation
   
3. Alnac 4G is noisy on most road surfaces except the really smooth ones. Cannot comment on the grip as it didn't let up at those normal speeds.
4. The suspension is soft and after long driving hours you feel a bit of dizziness once you get off the car. Strange, never felt this way in any car.
   
5. The seating is comfortable and you just need the right setting to suit your elbows and ankles to drive without pain. I've observed a bad seating position first affects these 2 areas and then the back and neck
   
6. Thank you for the suggestion on the door lamp @Motorhead1203. I checked with Bimal they were very very reluctant to even try. I need to take to Suraksha or Nexus to help me out on this.
   
7. AC worked flawlessly however it takes longer to cool the cabin especially when the car is parked under the afternoon sun. This despite having garware sunfilm on front and back windshield.

Overall It's a premium city car that I knew very well at the time of purchase and I have no complaints driving it within the city.

[Motorhead1203]

Originally Posted by no_boundaries

ODO@3800kms -
5. Thank you for the suggestion on the door lamp @Motorhead1203. I checked with Bimal they were very very reluctant to even try.

6. AC worked flawlessly however it takes longer to cool the cabin especially when the car is parked under the afternoon sun.

Overall It's a premium city car that I knew very well at the time of purchase and I have no complaints driving it within the city.

Hey there, I'm glad that I could be of help with the puddle lamps.

I believe the reluctancy from the bimal service center workers is because Maruti Suzuki decided to remove the entire wiring for the puddle lamps. Which means they'll have to take apart both the front door panels and connect wires from the central roof lamp to the door (because the puddle lamps have to be synchronised to work in such a way that they turn on only when the doors are open. Someone in this forum has installed puddle lamps in their brezza on their own, you can look it up to get a better idea of how the wiring is done.)

Another reason for the reluctancy is probably because your car is still under free service period, so they're being reluctant to get any extra work done on it.

Slightly OT but I had similar experience at Kalyani service center, those guys didn't even bother to wash the car properly despite me leaving the car there for an entire day, it had oily hand stains and soap residues everywhere.

Only after complaining to their service center owner we were able to resolve the issue and they also said they could install the puddle lamps when we brought the car in for the next service. I'll let you know the status when it does happen, do let me know if the people at suraksha are more helpful with this.

Regarding the AC not being able to cool fast enough, i think turning off recirculated air for a few minutes and keeping the AC running with windows open helps remove the hot air inside the car faster.

After a minute or two, you can close all the windows and put the AC in recirculated mode again if you like, i tried this trick today and it cooled down the car much faster than it normally does.