[MetalBuff]

Originally Posted by SRK

As for projector lamps volkman10 has mentioned in the S-Cross official thread that Maruti has directed dealers not to upgrade them, reason being a difference in wiring harness. So the only way would be to get it as a spare part and fix it outside which means the warranty goes for a toss.

You are right. I mentioned this to my RM that almost a lakh just for the projectors and the music system is a no-go for me. What ill instead do is upgrade to the projector setup on the same lines as people have on the S-cross. He mentioned in the negative saying that it wont be possible on the Baleno as the ECM is different which did not make much sense to me then. But, the wiring harness bit does drive the point home. Thanks for the tit-bit

Cheerio,
-Shivang Gandotra

[anandtheleo]

Another blockbuster in the making!!!

http://www.livemint.com/Industry/FrJ...ys-Maruti.html

[abhik897]

Originally Posted by MetalBuff

With the sheer number of people who turned up at the dealership, i think we can cut the fellas some slack. That being said, the next time you do visit, please ask for Mayur(a close friend) or Zubair(the RM assigned to me) and give them my reference. I am sure they'll address all your queries to your satisfaction. Feel free to PM me and i'll help you out with their numbers.

I too interacted with Mayur in this showroom when I went for my pre booking. Found him to very knowledgeable about the car and very courteous to deal with. Has been handling my paper work seamlessly. Will be visiting again on this Sunday for a test drive and down payment. Will keep you all posted about my impression.

[racer_ash]

Looks like some fellas in Hyderabad were lucky enough to get delivery of the Baleno. Saw one yesterday night with TR plates. I am pretty sure it was a personal vehicle because the car looked like it had just been blessed by the heavens with Sindoor and Flowers all around it. It also had proper TR plates unlike the el cheapo TR stickers that other manufacturers give.

Frankly, it does not stand out in the crowd at all. I followed it for almost a KM and a couple of traffic lights, but except me, no one were bothered to even give a second look. It was the Alpha variant and the new owner was driving away to glory with the High beam. The beam has a whitish tinge to it and it looks good. The rear LED array also looks good. My wife felt it was a cross between a Swift and an A-star though. I am sure it will sell well but it just does not stand out in the crowd.

[glenmz]

Everyone of us knows that Maruti knows it market well.
For a change, it gave us the SCross with premium feel and a pretty good build, but we all know how much this sells. So we cannot blame Maruti for building Baleno this way. Quality and premium-ness comes at a price. Maruti did give us a chance with SCross, Didn't they?

I took a look at the feature list and must say I am impressed. Dual Airbags, ABS, EBD et all from the base variant; Auto AC, parking sensors, Audio system with USB, Bluetooth from the second variant. So must say, the feature list is pretty good. And I have always been a fan of the way Maruti handles it customers. There is always a feel that you are taken care of unless some manufacturers who turn a blind eye towards the customers once you sign the cheque.

I saw 2 Balenos being driven from Sarjapur side towards Bangalore. They have good road presence; but you will take it for a swift at the first glance.

[romeomidhun]

It was heard earlier that Suzuki developed the new modular platform (on which Baleno sits) as one on which the components can be screwed to the platform for more rigidity than each component being stronger and holding the entire structure. I guess this is something similar to the ladder frame platform, but in the monocoque way.

The advantage is light weighted car and increased efficiency. The car is going to be bottom-heavy, and so, more stable on highway drives.

On the other side, the safety quotient will be affected for which Maruti has added the basic active and passive safety features like ABS, airbags in all trims.


Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2015/03/05/s...s-geneva-2015/

"Suzuki's new-generation platform is designed to efficiently increase rigidity while reducing weight via a fundamental redesign of the underbody's structure and also optimising overall vehicle design, including parts mounted on the underbody. This improves fuel efficiency, safety, handling, stability, and NVH performance across the board. Moreover, Suzuki will streamline development by consolidating its existing four platforms to three and modularizing functional components. This will enable bringing out new cars in a more efficient way that can be tailored to fast-changing market demand."

[MetalBuff]

Originally Posted by glenmz

Everyone of us knows that Maruti knows it market well.
For a change, it gave us the SCross with premium feel and a pretty good build, but we all know how much this sells. So we cannot blame Maruti for building Baleno this way. Quality and premium-ness comes at a price. Maruti did give us a chance with SCross, Didn't they?

I took a look at the feature list and must say I am impressed. Dual Airbags, ABS, EBD et all from the base variant; Auto AC, parking sensors, Audio system with USB, Bluetooth from the second variant. So must say, the feature list is pretty good. And I have always been a fan of the way Maruti handles it customers. There is always a feel that you are taken care of unless some manufacturers who turn a blind eye towards the customers once you sign the cheque.

Sure its a features galore but, the build quality is definitely something a lot of people will not take kindly to, for the reason that it feels way too light. If people think of other Marutis as tin boxes, then be prepared to get shell shocked with the Baleno. It's like MS raised the game in the tin car category. Please note that I am not getting into the debate of how strong it actually is but, it does feel very very light and that dwindles the confidence that one places in a product by a significant amount.

All one needs to do is open the hood and gently knock on each component in there. That should give an idea of what certain people in here including me are talking about.

I saw 2 Balenos being driven from Sarjapur side towards Bangalore. They have good road presence; but you will take it for a swift at the first glance.

Agreed! Even more so on the Alpha minus models that have the projectors missing.

Originally Posted by romeomidhun

"Suzuki's new-generation platform is designed to efficiently increase rigidity while reducing weight via a fundamental redesign of the underbody's structure and also optimising overall vehicle design, including parts mounted on the underbody.

If only the underbody has been tweaked for weight reduction, I would assume the rest of the car to remain largely untouched but, the current difference is immediately apparent. Certainly, there's a lot more to this than meets the eye!

On another note, I think MS just laid the foundation for what will happen when Airbags are made standard. Provide safety equipment and lighten the build quality to the point that it feels unstable. The customer is stll the one to lose either way!

What really is surprising is that NO and I mean NO reviewer who had access to the car at the time of media drives has complained how about light the car feels a when a lot of us realized the same within moments of feeling the car. In fact, dug up and re-read some reviews which mention a solid body feel .


More will unfold when the official review comes up as that is more trusted than a bunch of bhpians endlessly lamenting about something. And rightly so!


P.S. - Before flaming me, please bear in mind that we (my family) have owned only Maruti vehicles so far. Also for an even and fair debate, it is absolutely imperative that the car has been checked out in person, me thinks!

Cheerio,
-Shivang Gandotra

[aniketi]

Wow .. Suddenly this thread has become Maruti quality thread. People have started complaining about how thin metal its made up of, how doors close without the so called thud, how its light weight and what not. I have seen this car in person and don't find it to be bad at all. People comparing it with cars like Jazz, Figo etc. I have seen those cars as well and don't find them very great. They are equal in quality I will say. I have seen many Hyundai cars for so many years in my family, friends and they are not any better than Maruti for sure, they are equally tin cars. I have seen few old Fiesta as well from my friends, those were not great either. I wont comment on Etios and Liva from Toyota as no body in my circle has bought it till now as all found those cars really bad in all aspects.

Mind that when any car is lighter by some kilos, its not that all its weight has been reduced from sheet metal. It is engine that is lighter by using plastic parts, seats are lighter, so as other parts. Weight is reduced everywhere to gain better performance and better fuel efficiency. Here Maruti is using high tensile steel, so i am sure it will be better built car for sure. For so many years people were all saying Maruti's are not safe as they don't have Airbags, ABS & what not. Now Maruti is providing all and doing all right things. Even they are providing correct size, fattish tyres as well. Kudos to Maruti for all this. I strongly say that current generation Honda, Hyundai, Ford etc cars are not great either and are largely over hyped.

[romeomidhun]

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[DriveOnceMore]

If the weight is the only criteria then many NCAP agencies would have only used weighing Scales than crash testing
I didn't mean to hurt anyone.

Maruti offering safety features across all variants is surely a welcome move and should not get shot down because of car being lighter.

For increasing efficiency reducing weight is simplest way.
This is being done not only to impress customers but to fit into tighter emission norms, especially considering this that Baleno will be exported to 100 global markets where emission norms are much tighter.

We will get the answers to our SAFETY concerns once the car gets tested in several NCAP tests soon.

[bansal1987]

Until the car is NCAP tested, we have no reason to conclude that this car is less safer then other cars in the segment. The Grand i10(which most of us thought to be a good quality car and being heavier than Baleno) failed miserably in crash tests.

Maruti Ciaz weights 1010 Kg being a 4.5 m sedan and having a heavier 1.4 liter Petrol engine .By this, if Baleno is being thought as an unsafe car for its weight then Ciaz also is an unsafe car.

[Motard_Blr]

I have made some calculations below that show that the Baleno is the most expensive car compared to the i20 and the Jazz especially when it is the least safe of the three. How can Maruti charge 16% more per kg than the i20?!

Edit: I just realised that a line is obscured by the TBHP logo. It reads Rs/kg behind the logo.

[WRXXX]

Originally Posted by bansal1987

Maruti Ciaz weights 1010 Kg being a 4.5 m sedan and having a heavier 1.4 liter Petrol engine .By this, if Baleno is being thought as an unsafe car for its weight then Ciaz also is an unsafe car.

In fact those of us who have seen Ciaz and its build quality, Baleno sports the exact same build quality with all those flying light boot doors and lighter metals etc. I think the quirk here is somehow Maruti sported this car along with S-cross and called it as premium. In the same lines Ciaz is living with its older cousins possibly to achieve sales magic, honestly I don't think Ciaz and baleno have different build quality.

Also people should not get fooled by heavy shut doors alone for build quality, because it is very easy to simulate the door heaviness with bit of hydraulics and spring loading(ex:- skoda and VW cars and not that they are lighter cars though).

Coming back to baleno I am still not convinced that I should pay 9L OTR for Baleno but the alternatives are grim as well. Baleno's arrival in the market has made every other car look very expensive also. For example:- I can't get Swift, Swift Dzire, VW POLO, Gi10 and the list goes on
I should say if not anything Balenos arrival has stirred the minds of people fully!

[MetalBuff]

Originally Posted by DriveOnceMore

If the weight is the only criteria then many NCAP agencies would have only used weighing Scales than crash testing
I didn't mean to hurt anyone.

Maruti offering safety features across all variants is surely a welcome move and should not get shot down because of car being lighter.

For increasing efficiency reducing weight is simplest way.
This is being done not only to impress customers but to fit into tighter emission norms, especially considering this that Baleno will be exported to 100 global markets where emission norms are much tighter.

We will get the answers to our SAFETY concerns once the car gets tested in several NCAP tests soon.

Originally Posted by bansal1987

Until the car is NCAP tested, we have no reason to conclude that this car is less safer then other cars in the segment. The Grand i10(which most of us thought to be a good quality car and being heavier than Baleno) failed miserably in crash tests.

Maruti Ciaz weights 1010 Kg being a 4.5 m sedan and having a heavier 1.4 liter Petrol engine .By this, if Baleno is being thought as an unsafe car for its weight then Ciaz also is an unsafe car.

Fellas, a contrasting view is always appreciated so,a from my end.

The above opinions do make sense but, for a person like myself who sold his current ride and thought that the Baleno is the next car for him, is a difficult state to be in? Why? I just can't go with my eyes blind folded into a purchase with the hope that MSIL has made a better car (with increased tensile strength) only to realize later (when the test results are published) that it isn't the case!

We see what we believe in, right? If the Grande i10, scored a zero so, did the Swift! And to me, both of them feel more or less at par. The Grande i10 maybe better by a whisker but, not enough for it to score a better score. If the better feeling ones score dismally in the tests, I have my doubts about how the fragile feeling ones would

Originally Posted by WRXXX

I think the quirk here is somehow Maruti sported this car along with S-cross and called it as premium. In the same lines Ciaz is living with its older cousins possibly to achieve sales magic..

Nailed it!!


Cheerio,
-Shivang Gandotra

[srishiva]

I think we should concentrate on the safety ratings a car gets and not the perceptions. I also hope all cars in India will display the ratings on the car like they do abroad. This along with efficiency will make the buyer aware.

I hope car makers dont add a extra kilogram on each door to make people think they are heavily built