When Maruti Suzuki resurrected the Baleno name, albeit in hatchback guise, they took the hatchback market by storm with a winning proposition. That’s true of the manual transmission car, of course, but how good is its automatic version? We find out
Story: Aninda Sardar
Photography: Aditya Dhiwar
Of late there has been a lot of interest in cars with automatic transmission. And with good reason too. With our city roads becoming more congested by the day, driving a manual car is becoming more than a distasteful chore. Keeping pace with the need (and thus the inevitable demand to follow) for an alternative to such manual cars, the Indian automobile industry has responded with every solution manufacturers could think of.
So now you have automated manual transmissions at the bottom of the chain, continuously variable transmissions (CVT), conventional torque converters and dual-clutch gearboxes as we go up the same chain. Where the new Baleno hatchback is concerned, Maruti Suzuki have decided to go with a CVT mated to the car’s 1.2-litre (1,197 cc exactly) four-cylinder petrol engine. Here’s what happened on our road test.
Externally, there is absolutely nothing to distinguish the Baleno Automatic from its manual counterpart. It features the same ‘Liquid Flow’ design and inside, too, it’s pretty much the same story. Pride of place on the dashboard goes to the 4.2-inch touchscreen infotainment system. The display of torque and power use on the multi-function display on the instrument panel is a cool touch.
The Baleno Automatic’s 1.2-litre petrol engine puts out a maximum of 84 PS and 115 Nm of torque, all of which is sent to the front wheels via the aforementioned CVT, which also gets a ‘S’port mode and a shift lock button. The engine is quite refined and can barely be heard at tickover even with the music system muted. To drive, there’s adequate power and torque on tap for most driving conditions, even for a fair amount of spirited driving.
In fact, the powertrain is more than capable of taking care of spirited driving with a 0-100 km/h run dispensed in 12.26 seconds. The standing quarter mile (400 m) is crossed in less than 20 seconds (18.56 seconds to be precise) while the standing kilometre run goes by in just 34.16 seconds. In fact, the Baleno Automatic actually proves to be faster than the Baleno petrol manual, the latter posting a 0-100 km/h dash time of 13.73 seconds, a quarter mile run in 19.09 seconds and a standing kilometre run of 34.9 seconds. A noteworthy point is that although there is a Sport mode, engaging it didn’t make much difference either to perception of responsiveness or to actual responsiveness. No, the CVT is best left in just ‘D’rive mode.
On the handling front, it’s nimble and agile, responding fairly sharply to inputs up to early triple-digit speeds. Body-roll, too, is limited. Push the Baleno harder into the higher reaches of the speedo and things get mildly floaty. It’s not as if the car loses composure but there’s a distinct lightness and things become less confidence-inspiring than before. The ride quality, while not exactly plush, is comfortable none the less.
The Baleno Automatic is available only in the Delta trim level, which is the middle trim of the Baleno range. As a result, buyers of the Baleno Automatic will miss out on a lot of the hi-tech kit available in higher trim levels. Nevertheless, they will still benefit from ABS and EBD, twin airbags and front seatbelt pre-tensionsers (these are standard across the Baleno range, irrespective of trim level). For comfort, there is also an automatic climate control and a fairly decent infotainment system, albeit you can’t get the Smartphone Connect/Apple CarPlay.
The Baleno Automatic carries a tag of Rs 7.72 lakh, on-road, Pune. Competing with the Baleno Automatic in that segment is the CVT-equipped Honda Jazz, which sells for Rs 8.23 lakh (OTR, Pune) for the S trim line and Rs 9.04 lakh for the V trim. Neither get the 6.2-inch touchscreen infotainment, and only the more expensive V trim gets an auto air-con. On the safety front, while the Jazz does get ABS and EBD in both CVT variants, only in the dearer V trim do you get an airbag, and that too only for the driver. Clearly, therefore, where pricing and equipment are concerned, the Baleno Automatic seems like a sound choice for someone on the lookout for a fairly well-equipped automatic hatchback that’s good looking too. But does it really have what it takes to be the king of CVT hatches? Well, wait for us to do a comparison and you’ll find out.
