[no_boundaries]

ODO@8686KMS

Several highway trips and some city trips that took about the same time as the highway trips later, the Baleno has settled well in its element. I get a consistent mileage between 18 to 19kmpl with a mix of city and highway driving.

Some Observations since my last update -

1. On a particularly bad patch of city road, my rear right tyre suffered a tear and sadly could not be rescued. I found the apollo alnac 4G on the stock spec however I couldn't source the H speed rating and had to settle for the V speed rating. The wear and tear was not high or uneven hence went with this option that was fortunately economical.

2. Infotainment is not stable. It either randomly mutes out the audio completely or the screen freezes with no response to touch or long pressing the power. I need to get this checked at the 3rd service coming up in December. The version is the latest to the model as per the Suzuki app.

3. LED Lights works well on dry road conditions however on wet surfaces there is no reflection at all. I need to considerably reduce speed on highways when it rains due to this. The halogens worked fabulously under such conditions.

4. AMT gear shifts have settled into my driving rhythm. As I have always stated, these are barely better than the 1st generation and often fumble under circumstances of slight acceleration or incline. On a recent trip to Wayanad, this was very pronounced and I had to toggle to manual gear shift to save the clutch and engine.

5. The seat fabric is really rough to touch. I've spread a soft bed sheet to the rear seat which helps the feel however its an eyesore

6. The engine and gearbox works best if you drive the car to its capability. You can drive fast and long at higher speed however it just doesn't like those pedal stomping gear dropping aggression. I don't think its necessary on any car on our roads, but that's just me.

Modifications and Upgrades -
None. The car comes with all features that is required and practical. However there are few bits I want to change to personalize -
1. Dashboard Camera - I will be getting the Viofo A129 Pro Dual Dash camera shortly. I was hoping the MASS could help fix this for me

2. Car Detailing - Once the 3rd service is completed and I have a day to spare I want to handover the car to a good detailer for a thorough spic and span. During this process I also want to do a chrome delete from the car

3. Speaker upgrade - I need to do some research on this before I spend money. It needs to be functional and not flamboyant

Signing off with a picture from a recent trip to Wayanad - Thoroughly enjoyed the drive with no fatigue

[007maverick]

Originally Posted by hamster

Cross Posting from the Baleno Tyre Upgrade Thread.

Not sure if you have already went for tyre replacement. But here are some of my points based on my Ownership experience of Maruti Ritz Zxi. I used this gem of the vehicle for almost 12 years and recently purchased new i20.

Maruti cars are VfM but they have some peculiar issues. Cabin noise is one of those top issues. It's related to car's overall structure, build. Hence merely a tyre replacement will not help to reduce noise. My Ritz had factory fitted JK which I later on replaced with Goodyear and then Yokohama. The later ones were better in terms of ride & handling, but there was no positive effect on NVH.

There is no.point in merely chasing the expensive tyre brands. Get TPMS on your vehicle if its not there, maintain the tyre pressure as recommended by OEM and preferably fill N2.

Yokohama and Ceat Secura drive (these are on my i20) are good tyres and worth considering.

Originally Posted by Sanket299

We are in the market looking for a compact premium hatchback for short city runs which can be driven by everyone in the family. so automatic is a must.

You have mentioned a very clear requirement.. City Car and Automatic gear shift.

I would suggest you look at Wagon R. Not sure if you have considered/ taken a test drive. But for your requirement ..it should perfectly fit in.

It has a great Tall boy design, super all round visibility, great luggage compartment, and I found its AGS to be quite smooth. It's quite economical as well both on CAPEX and OPEX This was all from my test drive experience. I have not bought it since my requirement was not just a city car.

[McQueen]

Those who have driven both the latest versions of the Fronx MT and the Baleno MT, I have a few questions for you all. If you haven't driven both, still feel free to opine - but do mention that you haven't driven both.

1. Which vehicle has better suspension feel? How did each vehicle feel and handle potholes, speed breakers, highways and cornering at slow and high speeds?
2. Which vehicle is more planted at higher speeds and for overtakes? As the Fronx's CG is slightly above that of the Baleno, I thought it's the latter but I have read diverse opinions.
3. Between the Fronx Delta Plus MT (NA engine) and the Baleno Alpha MT, which one makes more practical sense and in what ways? (Assume that some of the missing features will be installed on the Fronx Delta+.)

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by McQueen

Those who have driven both the latest versions of the Fronx MT and the Baleno MT, I have a few questions for you all. If you haven't driven both, still feel free to opine - but do mention that you haven't driven both.

1. Which vehicle has better suspension feel? How did each vehicle feel and handle potholes, speed breakers, highways and cornering at slow and high speeds?
2. Which vehicle is more planted at higher speeds and for overtakes? As the Fronx's CG is slightly above that of the Baleno, I thought it's the latter but I have read diverse opinions.
3. Between the Fronx Delta Plus MT (NA engine) and the Baleno Alpha MT, which one makes more practical sense and in what ways? (Assume that some of the missing features will be installed on the Fronx Delta+.)

There is essentially no difference in the ride and dynamics of Baleno and Fronx in regular daily driving. You pay extra for the Fronx only for the ground clearance, rest is all marketing BS.

[McQueen]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

There is essentially no difference in the ride and dynamics of Baleno and Fronx in regular daily driving. You pay extra for the Fronx only for the ground clearance, rest is all marketing BS.

I got confused after reading this review.

The reviewer said that he found the suspension very mature, or enough to drive over a patchy highways without having to slow down. The bumps didn't bother him at all he mentioned. I wanted to know how it compares to the Baleno.

He additionally mentioned that the Fronx felt "noticeably" heavier and more well built than the Baleno. Here, I wanted to confirm if those are true in general or there's a slight bias as he was planning to buy the Fronx (and eventually did so). It's only natural to have a bias!

[Gupts007]

I have proof now that the Front doors of the new Baleno are heavier and are made of different grade of Steel than the rear doors. Since I have the previous version of the Baleno as well and it being an old car now with 1.3 lac kms on the odometer, the doors on that one would fling out when opened. They would not stop and would freely swing and would easily hit the car parked next to it, if not carefully opened. I did some research and found out that the culprit is the Door Stop like this here

Old Baleno Front Door Stop


New Baleno Front Door Stop


So I went an ordered these for both the front and rear doors. While I was at it, I realized that the Front Stop is different for the new Baleno compared to the pre facelift version. Whilst the rear door STOP is the same for both versions.

In any case you can really feel the difference in the weight of the Front doors of both the cars. I am just wondering why could Maruti not use the heavier steel on the rear doors and boot lid too? I think they just wanted to keep their costs down and yet lay a claim that the new Baleno was slightly better than a tin can.

I don't think any other vehicle manufacturer would ever use different grades of steel for the Front and the Rear doors. Please do comment if you are aware of any other vehicle that uses different steel.

[CA Dhruv]

Hello Fellow Bhpians,

Recently got a baleno delta auto in family. It was all driving butter smooth till yesterday had covered around 200 kms including 130 kms of highway driving. Switched apollos to michelins (mid nov 2023) of same spec 185/65/ r15. Had swapped 15 inch alloys from ciaz (2016).

Immediately post swapping have driven around 20 kms in local (tier 2 city) with average roads, steering has gained a bit of weight and ride has become rough. Air filled is 32 psi all around. Also a rattling sound is coming from dashboard area while driving on city roads.

Please let me know if anyone has faced the same sound and apparently how to solve it. Is it obvious for such sounds to appear in a 200 kms driven Maruti ? Are new shoes the culprit for these sounds as there was no sound when it had apollos.

[Gupts007]

Originally Posted by CA Dhruv

Is it obvious for such sounds to appear in a 200 kms driven Maruti ? Are new shoes the culprit for these sounds as there was no sound when it had apollos.

It's very normal to hear rattles in a Maruti. My Baleno with only 5k on the odo has noises coming from the HUD area and the passenger A pillar area. I just have gotten used to them.

[Fastdriver]

Originally Posted by CA Dhruv

Hello Fellow Bhpians,

Recently got a baleno delta auto in family. It was all driving butter smooth till yesterday had covered around 200 kms including 130 kms of highway driving. Switched apollos to michelins (mid nov 2023) of same spec 185/65/ r15. Had swapped 15 inch alloys from ciaz (2016).

Immediately post swapping have driven around 20 kms in local (tier 2 city) with average roads, steering has gained a bit of weight and ride has become rough. Air filled is 32 psi all around. Also a rattling sound is coming from dashboard area while driving on city roads.

Please let me know if anyone has faced the same sound and apparently how to solve it. Is it obvious for such sounds to appear in a 200 kms driven Maruti ? Are new shoes the culprit for these sounds as there was no sound when it had apollos.

The prescribed tyre pressure for my Baleno Alpha is 29 psi. I keep it at 30 psi. Its tyre size is 195/55 R16. A feeble rattling sound sometimes appear to come from the dashboard on bad roads but not much pronounced. It was filled with 45 psi tyre pressure at the time of purchase and ride quality was not that smooth on bad roads. Check your tyre pressure with an accurate gauge. I have covered 14000kms approx and the experience is quite good.

[CA Dhruv]

Originally Posted by Gupts007

It's very normal to hear rattles in a Maruti. My Baleno with only 5k on the odo has noises coming from the HUD area and the passenger A pillar area. I just have gotten used to them.

I agree to that but this was a 230 kms driven car. Tyres were the culprit here.

Originally Posted by Fastdriver

The prescribed tyre pressure for my Baleno Alpha is 29 psi. I keep it at 30 psi. Its tyre size is 195/55 R16. A feeble rattling sound sometimes appear to come from the dashboard on bad roads but not much pronounced. It was filled with 45 psi tyre pressure at the time of purchase and ride quality was not that smooth on bad roads. Check your tyre pressure with an accurate gauge. I have covered 14000kms approx and the experience is quite good.

Found out that new Michelins were the culprit. Switched it back to Apollo's and car is saliling like a boat. Never thought Apollo's would be soo better than Michelins.

[Rocky_C]

Hi everyone,

I have a Baleno Zeta 2023, recently I got an alert(attached pic) mentioning ESP Warning light failure has occurred. I called SA from MASS to know more about the issue and solution for this but I'm not getting the correct response from them. Has anybody else faced a similar issue? If so, any information would be very useful. Thanks in advance.

[Jatin247]

Hello everyone
We got our Baleno facelift in April 2022. Till now we have completed around 31.5K kms and the car is due for its third service.
I honestly believe the service cost of nexa cars is on a really high end, around 7-8K per 10K service.
Since my car is already a manual and doesn’t really have much electronics, I was thinking if I should go with any other independent garage?
Would it be wise? I don’t feel spending 7-8K on Baleno’s service is worth it all when my other car, Alcazar that too a diesel’s service comes to around 5-7K only while the vehicle costs almost twice of it.

[no_boundaries]

Originally Posted by Rocky_C

I have a Baleno Zeta 2023, recently I got an alert(attached pic) mentioning ESP Warning light failure has occurred.

Sorry, I don't have an answer but curious to know if you got a solution or if it was a false alert ? Did MASS do an OBD scan on this ?

[Rocky_C]

Originally Posted by no_boundaries

Sorry, I don't have an answer but curious to know if you got a solution or if it was a false alert ? Did MASS do an OBD scan on this ?

The alert went off by itself but just to reassure this wouldn't happen again I visited Popular NEXA service in Porur. They initially told on call this might've happened due wiring issue(rat bites, thankfully I purchased a rat repellent spray and use it once a month to keeps the rats off the engine bay) or sensor fault. They did a OBD scan and the error showed up in the history. Then we did a test run of about ~15 kms in highway near it with the scanning laptop connected at speeds above 80+ as the alert first showed when the car was driven above 70+, this time the system didn't show any alerts. Another thing showed up in the laptop, it was something like clutch sensor recalibration, the SA told me this might be interlinked and reset it. I was also told that the issue will not resurface again, incase it does we might need to look into the sensor itself. Hope this helps

[Encyclopedic]

I have a small query regarding fitment of Alpha variant steering on Delta variant.Is it plug and play or some wiring needs to be altered? If anyone can throw light on the matter as I really wanted to have leather wrapped steering.