The Maruti Suzuki Baleno has been a very popular car ever since it was first launched in 2015. Competing with the likes of the Hyundai Elite i20 and the Honda Jazz in the premium hatchback segment, the Baleno is the best selling car of the segment. Now, the Balneo has added a new accolade to its belt. Maruti Suzuki recently crossed the 6 Lakh sales mark of the Balenos in India. What’s more is that the hatchback achieved this feat in a record time of only 44 months. This easily shows its popularity in the market. Let’s now take a look at why is the Baleno such a successful car.
First of all, the Baleno is a pretty feature rich car which attracts buyers to it. It features includes keyless entry and start, rear parking sensors with camera, automatic headlamps and follow me lamps, audio controls on the steering wheel, automatic climate control, touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto along with many other features. Maruti has equipped all the variants of the car with ABS+EBD and dual airbags. The starting price of the Baleno is Rs. 5.58 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), which makes it quite an affordable choice too.
Unlike some of the cars in the market, the Balneo comes with both manual and automatic transmission options. All three engines get 5-speed manual gearboxes as standard while the 1.2-litre petrol gets a CVT automatic gearbox as an option. There are a total of four engine options available on the Baleno right now with the 1.2-litre petrol having a CVT automatic gearbox as an option. The rest of the engines have a 5-speed manual box doing the job. This gives a choice to the buyers as they can buy the engine-gearbox configuration as per their need.
Maruti’s trusted and relatively inexpensive aftersales service support is another factor in the success of the Baleno. Being a Nexa product, the Baleno needs to be serviced at Nexa outlets only but as the hatchback still shares a lot of parts with the rest of the models, one can turn to any Maruti service station in case of an emergency. Also, the parts and service cost of the vehicle is quite cheap which makes way for a hassle-free ownership experience.
Talking about the engine options on the Baleno, it is offered with 3 engine options. There is a naturally aspirated 1.2 litre, 4 cylinder K-Series petrol engine with 82 Bhp of power and 113 Nm torque along with a 1 litre 3 cylinder turbocharged BoosterJet petrol engine with 101 Bhp of power and 150 Nm of torque. The diesel engine on offer is a 1.3 litre Fiat Multijet turbocharged unit with an output of 74 Bhp and 190 Nm. Maruti Suzuki also introduced a hybrid petrol engine recently which is actually a tweaked 1.2-litre petrol unit of the Baleno with hybrid technology added. This engine produces 89 Bhp of power along with 113 Nm of torque and comes mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox
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