Looking Back, I Can see the time when we were supposed to purchase a car for a few family members.
Since we already had a Santro, it was a good point thinking that we take a car from the middle segment. We had some options in our mind such as Esteem, Accent, and Getz. One by one we took test rides of all of them, Maruti being a trusted name was the last option coz we thought that ’’The Maruti’’ would anyways be good. At last the time came when we went to take the test ride of maruti.Esteem... To our extreme surprise we saw that the prices of Baleno have slashed!!!!!! The Baleno, which was compared once to Honda City Vtech was available to us at a nominal price of 5.34 lacs!!!!!! We couldn’t believe our eyes and forgetting about Esteem, we dashed to take a test ride for Baleno.....
Test Ride::: When we seated into the car, it did not look as luxurious as Accent Or Gets for that matter... This was a bit of concern but not too much coz Maruti has been manufacturing State of the art engines but when it comes to the matter of bodies.... nothing much can be said....
We however tried to find some solace and tried finding something, , , at least something which can justify Baleno as a luxury car....Nothing!!! Nothing at all, , , even the quality of plastic used for the dashboard and the type of switchgear used was pathetic as compared to even accent...
Then we cranked up the engine and thought that this is something for which you can bargain your life for.... That expectation was also bitterly shattered, coz not only the engine was rough, it was also giving a bad sound, pretty much like a bloody diesel engine... On top of this all, it was giving a overwhelmingly bad vibration. a clear disappointment. That too from something, for which you had sooooo much expectations from!!!!!!!!! I was and a bit still am flabbergasted and really annoyed with maruti for manufacturing such a bad car.............
Hey also when we honked the horn, it sounded as if it is inside our ears and not outside the car!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THEY COMPARED THIS &^%#@$ WITH HONDA CITY VTECH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If that was possible, I would sue all the magazines and above all Maruti for playing such a crooked pretence and playing with the money and the sentiments of people... Just imagine how horrible it would have been if I would have purchased a Baleno just because some magazines described it as the most underrated car and maruti claimed that it had employed at least 16 devices just to make it a bit quieter........