Maruti Baleno: The Best Car for 13 lakh
The Nexa Baleno is a hatchback, but not a tall boy like the Wagon R. Its height is only 1500 mm, similar to sedans like the Verna’s 1475mm and the Virtus’s 1507 mm.
I test-drove this petrol car, both in the city and on the highway, and evaluated it against my requirements. It’s the best car for its price of 13 lakh.
+ There’s no P in the gear lever, which eliminates redundancy with the hand brake.
± Manual handbrake.
± When driving, I prefer to use the headlight even in daytime, for safety, but I can’t, in the Baleno — the dash goes into night mode, reducing visibility. I can’t change this.
Comfort
+ Great headroom by sedan standards.
+ Great legroom
+ Steering wheel tilts and telescopes
- No auto hold, so marginally more effort to drive in stop-and-go traffic.
+ In D, when I released the handbrake, the car rolled back.
+ The car has no body roll, and I felt comfortable in the front passenger seat when weaving between lanes at 80-100 kph, the way I wouldn’t in a crossover.
- The under-arm storage is tiny.
+ All four doors have a pocket for a key, next to the window controls.
+ There’s a small pocket to the right of the steering column to store keys or other small things.
+ Easy to squeeze through gaps in traffic in the city, since the car is only 4 meters long. Not on the highway, where it’s lacking in engine power, and a Verna would be ahead.
+ This is the best AMT is the I’ve driven — unlike other cars like the Dzire, it doesn’t jerk or decelerate and then accelerate noticeably when changing gears, even when floored. In fact, the Baleno when floored accelerates and changes gears smoother than the Dzire when driven gently.
- The car is noisy when driven in a spirited way, because it revs a lot. It has to, given its anemic engine. I returned from the test drive with my ears complaining.
+ The engine is not harsh. In other words, the sound isn’t irritating, as it is in 3-cylinder cars like the Dzire.
Performance
Don’t buy this car if you drive fast or enjoy spirited driving. Unfortunately, there’s no car in India that’s suitable for spirited driving at the Baleno’s price of 13 lakh.
- Its 0-100 time is 16 seconds! I find 10 to be enjoyable.
- Its power output is only 66 kw. I find 98 to be enjoyable.
- It’s only a 1.2-liter naturally aspirated engine, while I prefer a 1.5 turbo.
+ When floored, it upshifts close to the peak power RPM, so there’s no potential for optimisation there.
+ The AMT shows the current gear, like D3. As a geek, I like to look into an automatic system and understand what it’s doing.
- Only 5 gears
± No driving modes like eco or sport.
+ The car has excellent ground clearance, despite its low height, and easily cleared a steep speed bump at 20 kph!
Digital
+ Wired CarPlay
- … which requires you to use the USB-A port
- No USB-C in front
+ 12V 120W
- Infotainment screen’s UI looks rough, like an Android tablet from 12 years ago.
- Music quality is bad
- The phone’s volume controls don’t work in CarPlay1.
Cooling
- The two bottle holders in the center can’t be used, since they block the USB-A and 12V ports.
- No rear window sunshades
- No sunglass holder
- No cooled glovebox
- No remote AC start
- No ventilated seats
Front passenger seat
- I can’t fully stretch my legs
+ Good headroom, better than a sedan.
+ Tall window
± The windshield is not panoramic since it’s a low vehicle.
Rear seat
- Poor headroom: The roof, the metal above the window, and the C pillar are all too close. The view from the window isn’t good, because my eye is too high. All this makes it claustrophobic2.
+ Good legroom. I can’t stretch my legs, but I can’t in cars that cost multiple Balenos.
- Noisier than the front.
- No center armrest.
+ 1 each USB-C and -A.
+ Phone holder just below the AC.
+ The left and right passengers can angle the vents left / right independently and up / down jointly.
But they don’t on many cars.