Baleno – surprising performance

The only sound you should hear in a car is that of your pulse pounding.


The search for a car began 2 months back. For over 2 years now, V and I were sure that when we decide to buy a car, it would be none other than the Maruti Zen – a small family car that fit within one’s budget and navigated easily through the Bangalore traffic. However, when we began our search 2 months back, we entertained the idea of going for a ‘long’ car (the ones with a boot) – it may sound funny but until 6 years back there were very few long cars in India. So Zen didn’t figure in the list. The first choice was Esteem – the esteemed car in that segment for years now until Ford and Hyundai came in. Maruti Esteem supposedly had a sleek look compared to the Contessa – the one with a 50-50 front back).
We saw the Hyundai Accent GLE, Hyundai Santro, Hyundai Getz, Ford Ikon 1.3/ and 1.6, Fiat Petra, Honda City, Esteem Vxi and Baleno. With so many options and prices ranging from 4 Lakhs to 7 Lakhs, we decided to get our priorities right that would help in making the right choice. I wouldn’t go into the technical details that we considered. The elimination process began and Hyundai/Ford were out of our consideration radar mainly because of their looks. I have always disliked the looks of a Santro and surprisingly Ford Ikon didn’t appeal to both of us. The so called high ground clearance perhaps doesn’t make the car look so great. But I must admit that striking out Ford Ikon was perhaps the most difficult decision as it kept haunting us until the last. It is apparently a steal at that price. The 2 cars that I liked the minute I saw them were Honda City and Fiat Petra. Honda City was not affordable and Fiat Petra we felt as the autocar reviews said that it was a great value for money.

It was a daily ritual for V for the last 2-3 weeks. He would go down every morning and walk from one end of the basement to the other carefully observing the 90 odd cars parked – a great variety, There was one car that was a showstopper – the black Baleno and it captured his attention from the minute it rolled in on Sept 17th. The family that lives upstairs had bought it. A great offer on the Baleno that couldn’t have been more appropriately timed made us consider it. So the final showdown was between the Baleno and the Petra.
Until 2 weeks back, we had more or less decided on the Petra when an unfortunate incident happened with one of our neighbors and their bad experience with Fiat service center influenced our decision against the Petra. This again proved that Fiat doesn’t have a good market share because of its poor customer service in India, which we knew all along but wanted to intentionally overlook as we loved the Petra.

And Baleno won….
Today was the D-day. I was so nervous this morning that I felt like a kid appearing for a difficult exam. But it feels good that it has come home… And I came back home all excited like a kid waiting to play with the new toy..oh yes I don’t know how to drive so I just came back to see how it was…

Welcome home Baleno…