Now I’m in a bit of a dilemma. Whether to wait for the Brezza or just bite the bullet and get the AMT Baleno.
BHPian Gupts007 recently shared this with other enthusiasts
Just came back after test driving the AMT Baleno.
For sedate driving… The gear shifts though slightly noticeable aren’t going to bother… Yes you will feel the shifts as you would feel even in a manual driven by someone whose clutch release and gear shift are less than perfect….
The kickdown is bad though… Lag is very noticeable there as you want an immediate move but it will disappoint. Then lag and the jerk is in your face. However once it chooses the gear it will go all the way to the red line where it will shift up. For this reason urgent overtaking will be an issue.
I had booked the Automatic in the early days when they had just started talking booking unofficially because I didn’t want to wait if I decided to buy, I wanted to have it asap.
Now I’m in a bit of a dilemma. Whether to wait for the Brezza or just bite the bullet and get the AMT Baleno. For spirited driving this AMT will remind you on each shift that it’s an AMT. For regular city use the shifts are noticeable but only just.
In Chandigarh they’ve installed 2500 cameras on the roads to keep a check on speed and other violations so spirited driving is technically non existent now. So practically the AMT shouldn’t bother.
One big negative is that it does not have a P mode and the vehicle is only going to be held by the hand brake when parked. As we all know after a while and repeated use the hand brake ability to hold is degraded for the vehicle particularly on a slope. I tried stopping the engine in D and then pushed the car to see if it will move or hold. It moved so that’s not an option. I don’t know if that’s a limitation of an AMT…P mode not being available but yeah .. That’s an issue i think.
The front seats are supremely comfortable and large but lack support cuz they are so soft and no lumbar support is available for long drives comfort.
The doors though are very heavy compared to the previous Baleno which I own. It’s night and day difference I could tell straightaway.
HUD I thought was a gimmick but after driving with it I feel it’s quite handy. Even more so with the gazillion speed cameras in action now in town.
Here’s what BHPian blitz_nomad had to say on the matter:
Thanks for the feedback. I was also, pleasantly surprised by the HUD. Going for TD in the MT version, before the ride, I thought Maruti was really overdoing it with this level of bling. It’s not like I’m Tom Cruise in Top Gun trying to fly a supersonic jet. My thinking was this could have totally been avoided passing on the savings in cost.
But then when I took the ride, I found myself looking at the HUD, reluctant to peek at the instrument cluster. I guess the instrument cluster being very busy compared to the neat HUD, leads to this. Just having the RPM and speed standout like that without any clutter was helpful. Wished it also displayed the current gear. (Helpful for new drivers).
Keyword: A short spin in the 2022 Maruti Baleno AMT