I happen to meet one of my cousin who recently purchased a Maruti Suzuki Baleno Car. He offered me a drive to get feedback of the vehicle as I have been changing my cars frequently. I took a quick 3 km round with the car. I was really impressed by the interiors & engine response of the vehicle even though, I felt little lack of power being 83 bhp engine.
My driving pleasure came to grinding halt when I took a turn & allowed the steering to return to its position. I had to suddenly grab the steering & take it back to its position. This was terrible experience for me being driven so many cars low-end like Maruti 800 to High-end Land rover discovery. Steering of all the cars that I have driven till date has self-returning feature. To my utter surprise, Baleno’s steering doesn’t return to its position once you loosen your grip on steering wheel after taking turn. I gave this feed back to my cousin & asked him to visit the service centre & explain this experience. On, enquiry, the service centre mechanic said, Baleno comes with this kind of steering & he cannot do anything about it.
I have experienced this steering return-ability issue in new Desire & new Swift as well. This is a basic safety feature one should have in vehicle to reduce fatigue while driving through Ghats & multiple cornering. It will also be difficult for people driving other vehicles get-used to such kind of steering and this may result in accident.