Maruti Suzuki is all set to cement its name as a premium vehicle maker with the launch of Baleno hatchback. The premium hatchback will be sold at the recently set up Nexa showrooms retailing only premium cars of India's largest car manufacturer. The Baleno will be the second car sold through Nexa after the S-Cross.

Ahead of the launch scheduled on 26 September, a lot of information has already been revealed by the manufacturer.

Design and Interior

The car comes with design philosophy that the manufacturer calls 'Liquid Flow', which is obviously the answer to the 'Fluidic' design theme of Hyundai i20, the main rival. The result is smooth lines and curves and a prominent shoulder line. The Swift hatchback inspiration is evident in the black-out A and B pillars.

While the overall design is not a head turner, it isn't bad either. Maruti Suzuki seems to have opted for a sweet spot and the interior gets all-black theme adding extra bit of sportiness.

Dimensions and weight

The Baleno measures 3,995mm in length, 1,745mm in width and 1,500mm in height with a wheel base of 2,520mm. The car features 339-litres of boot space and 37-litres of fuel capacity. The petrol variants come with the weigh in the range of 865-910kg and the diesel variants from 960-985kg.

Engine and Transmission

The Baleno will be powered by a 1.2-litre K-Series petrol engine developing 83bhp and 115Nm of torque, and the 1.3-litre DDiS diesel engine will churn out 74bhp and 190Nm of torque. Both the engines are mated to a five-speed manual transmission, while the petrol engine is also available with CVT automatic gearbox.

Fuel efficiency

The DDiS diesel engine is tuned to deliver claimed fuel efficiency of 27.39kmpl, which is segment leading. The petrol unit returns a claimed fuel efficiency of 21.4kmpl.

Variants and Features

The Baleno will be sold in Sigma, Delta, Zeta and Alpha variants in petrol and diesel variants. The petrol CVT makes a total of nine variants. Maruti Suzuki has gone premium on safety and all variants get twin front airbags and ABS with EBD as standard.

Sigma -- Central locking, front power windows, power steering with tilt function, anti-theft security, front seat belt pre-tensioners with force limiters and seat belt reminder for driver seats.

Delta -- The mid-level comes with full wheel caps, keyless entry, reverse parking sensors, audio system with aux and USB connectivity, Bluetooth, steering mounted audio controls, electrically foldable ORVMs and climate control.

Zeta -- This variant boasts chrome door handles along with alloy wheels. Additionally, it comes with front fog lamps, lights to front footwell and boot space, multi functional colour display, leather wrapped steering wheel, start/stop push button, UV-protection glass and follow me home headlamps.

Alpha -- The top of the line variant flaunts projector headlamps, LED daytime running lamps, navigation system, rear parking camera and Apple CarPlay which is first in the segment.

Price

For actual figures we will have to wait till the launch on 26 October, but the estimated prices are hovering around Rs 6 lakh to 9.5 lakh.

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