Test drove the Maruti Fronx BoosterJet; How it compares with my Baleno

Having sold my RS almost a year back, I was at home the instant I pressed the accelerator. It took off without a hint of lag.

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Among some of the mysteries of life is the inability of Maruti to sell the BoosterJet engine variants in decent numbers. I owned this engine in the form of a Baleno RS for over a lakh kilometres and there I can understand that its suspension tuning did it no favours but still the engine itself was worth it given its flexibility and responsiveness.

Got a chance to test drive the Fronx BoosterJet AT a week back for a relative of mine. Having sold my RS almost a year back, I was at home the instant I pressed the accelerator. It took off without a hint of lag. The throaty rasp that I loved in the RS was still there and what especially stood out was the gearbox in traffic..no hunting for ratios and super smooth as self-respecting torque converter ATs should be. The paddle shift was great too and shifted up and down on demand as needed. But frankly, the gearbox in regular drive mode was so well-tuned that I hardly felt the need to use the paddles.

Press the accelerator and the mid-range eagerness that I had in my manual RS was still there...if Maruti had tuned this engine for more mileage it wouldn't affected the character much. I also put it into manual mode and loved the fact that it held onto the gear till you changed gears.

One great thing that Maruti has improved over the RS is the suspension tune. Even though it is suspended higher up than the RS the suspension was just great not feeling too soft given the power of the engine which was one of the drawbacks of the RS. If it hadn't been for the Jimny this could have been the RS replacement.

Drive on,

Shibu

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