It’s been almost a year, when we first heard this name Baleno at the Frankfurt Motor Show that was designed exclusively by Indian manufacturing facility and available in three powertrain options. In this shortest time period, it has become a strong puzzle for its competitors like Hyundai Elite i20, Honda Jazz and Volkswagen Polo. To further expand its market, the India-made Baleno has finally been Launched in Australia with two grades namely GL and GLX Turbo at the starting price of $16,990 plus on road cost.
Baleno is comparatively shorter in dimensions than one of the other popular hatchbacks Hyundai i30 in Australia. The former measures 3995 mm long, 1745 mm wide, 1470 mm tall and has a wheelbase of 2520 mm with a ground clearance of 120 mm, while the latter has got 4330 mm in length, 1780 mm in width, 1470 mm in height, wheelbase of 2650 mm and a ground clearance of 140 mm.
Under the hood, the GL variant will be powered by a naturally aspirated 1.4-litre four cylinder petrol engine that is sourced by Maruti Ciaz and capable of making out 68 kW of power at 6000 rpm and 130 Nm of torque at 4000 rpm. You can opt for a 5-speed manual as well as 4-speed automatic transmission for this trim. Also, it is claimed to return a fuel mileage of 5.1L/100km for manual and 5.4L/100km for automatic unit.
Furthermore, a 1.0L BoosterJet three cylinder petrol engine is also there with its GLX Turbo unit that is good for 82 Bhp of power at 5500 rpm and 160 Nm of torque at 1500-4000 rpm. The engine is mated with only a six-speed automatic transmission unit and rated at 5.2L/100km of fuel efficiency.
Impressively, you can carry as much stuff as you want inside the cargo which has got an ample space of 355 litres and also can be expanded up to 1085 liters by splitting of rear seats. Besides, the automaker has offered a host of safety features like three point seatbelts, six airbags, ABS, stability and traction control, etc.
Some of the other noticeable features are listed as LED daytime running lights, fog lights, leather covered steering wheel, touchscreen infotainment system accompanied with satellite navigation and Apple CarPlay support, cruise control and much more. Apart from these standard features, the top end GLX Turbo has also furnished with 16-inch alloy wheels, HID projector headlights, chrome door handles, automatic climate control, telescopic steering wheel, etc.
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