The Maruti Baleno has been the top-selling premium hatchback in the country for time immemorial now. Launched in October 2015, the hatchback has not only outsold all its rivals comprehensively, but has even brought enough glory to its nameplate after the lack lustrous response to the sedan namesake many years ago. The Baleno has many strengths, including a spacious cabin, frugal engine and a good ride. In terms of safety though, it has pretty much failed to rub shoulders with most of its rivals.
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In fact, the Maruti Baleno has repeatedly received flak for ‘poor build quality’ as perceived by many on seeing pictures of mangled remains of the car in various crashes. Even if you talk about the NCAP ratings, it’s essential to mention here that the Baleno has not been tested by Global NCAP but the Euro NCAP test conducted on the made-in-India model had pretty positive results. The top model equipped with radar-based braking and automatic emergency braking scored a 4-star rating while the one without this braking technology scored a 3-star rating. The Indian version, in all likelihood, will be close to the 3-star rated car. However, until now, G-NCAP hasn’t tested the India-spec version.
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Speaking about the accident above, the same took place near Bramhavara, Karnataka. As per the available details, there 5 occupants in the Baleno Delta at the time of the crash and all of them are completely safe. No sooner than this picture and the details were posted on a social media site, many started commenting that it’s a ‘miracle’ that the car kept everyone safer in the event of such a massive crash. This clearly shows the perception of most towards the safety quotient the Baleno offers. On the other hand, some people did laud the car for keeping everyone unhurt and the same people even said that the repeated talks of the most premium Maruti small car being unsafe is nothing but propaganda from Tata fanboys.
The Maruti Baleno locks horns with the third-gen Hyundai i20, Tata Altroz and Honda Jazz. Of these, the Altroz has won a lot of praise for bagging a full 5-star rating in Global NCAP crash tests. It’s fairly common to see social media users praising the premium hatchback fro the homegrown carmaker for its high safety rating while bashing the top-selling model for the allegedly poor crash safety it offers. In spite of this mass scale belief, the Baleno has continued to comprehensively outsell every model in its segment. Last month, it sold 14,729 units as opposed to 6,980 units of the Altroz.
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