Still having a tough time settling the Baleno vs Glanza dispute? Chill, we’ve got your back!
The Maruti Baleno and Toyota Glanza may be the most identical twins that exist in the Indian automotive arena today. The Baleno had been selling good numbers when Toyota came up with a rebadged version of it in 2019, that hosted minimal differences from the Suzuki counterpart. Owing to the lack of pronounced lines of distinction between the two, many a buyer confront confusions in making a choice between them. I will now tell you which one of these you should go for and why…
Design
The Baleno vs Glanza comparo can get the most boring of games when it comes to a proper design comparison. There are absolutely no changes on the exterior designs to differentiate the Suzuki from its Toyota counterpart. Take a Maruti Suzuki Baleno, pluck off the Suzuki badging, stick a Toyota logo and two horizontal chrome slats on the front grille, and you get a Glanza. That’s pretty much the game. The front and rear bumpers, tail lamps, headlamps, and even the alloy wheels get absolutely no change at all. Seriously?!
Interior
The story remains the same on the inside as well. There is absolutely no change here except for the logo swap. Even the shades of the seat fabric remain the same on both cars. The central infotainment system sees the same levels of response and functionality In both the cars, indicating that the difference in their names begins and ends there!
Engine And Other Mechanicals
Both the Maruti Suzuki Baleno and Toyota Glanza gets the same 1197 cc petrol engine that churns out 81hp on the Baleno and 82 on the Glanza. Both the cars now get BS6 compliant mills. There is offer a choice of 5 MT and CVT boxes on either car.
Drive Impressions?
Even though the cars share the same mechanicals, I found the Glanza to have a tiny upper hand on the fun-to-drive factor. However, this is not fairly pronounced at all times. In most cases, you will end up enjoying almost equal amounts of drive quality on the Baleno CVT as well. The CVTs do absolute justice to their true selves with their familiar rubber band effect.
Mileage?
The Baleno is claimed to have a mileage of 19.56kmpl. However, during my days with the car, I achieved around 18.2 on an average. Judging from this I was expecting the Glanza to give me the same. But interestingly enough, it returned about 17.9 kpl on an average. Not a commentable drop, is it?
Safety?
The Baleno to be honest, is much scorned for its safety today. We have seen many units of it getting crushed in deadly crashes. The car has been built on Suzuki’s new Heartect platform that has achieved tremendous weight loss without hampering the overall stiffness and rigidity. The vehicles that the Heartect has spawned so far have all been built in such a way that in the event of a crash, the body of the car absorbs the impact and gets juiced, thereby reducing the passenger damage to a great extent. This nature of these cars is what has triggered all those safety-concerns and associated havoc you see on the internet.
Like it or not, but the same applies to the Toyota Glanza as well. You like the Baleno, like Glanza too, wanna hate? hate both! However, both the cars get essential safety equipment like dual airbags at the front, ABS, EBD, ISOFIX child seat mounts, etc on all the variants.
Why Should You Buy A Maruti Baleno?
Now that we have seen both cars in one quick go, let us answer this key question. Maruti Suzuki has chosen to do away with Baleno’s diesel engines in the BS6 era. But, even with that said, the Suzuki offers almost 9 different variants on the petrol car. This means that there would be a Baleno suiting the pockets of almost every millennial out there. This diversity in trim levels is one reason you should go for a Baleno. Afterall, pocket matters a lot…
Why Should You Buy A Toyota Glanza?
Toyota has built the Glanza over the two upper trims of Baleno-the Zeta and the Alpha. It comes in two trim levels and 5 variants, viz- G MT, G AT, V MT, V AT and the more fun to drive G MT Smart Hybrid letting out 89 hp. Thus it lacks almost 4 lower variants of the Baleno. So, Glanza can be marked ‘out of reach’ for the aspirant customers aiming for the lower end of the range. However, the most notable PLUS you would find in the Glanza is Toyota’s trusted service and after-sales care on offer. The maintenance costs would also be marginally cheaper than Baleno.
Prices?
The prices for the Baleno start at INR 5.63 lakh and go upto INR 8.96 lakh for the Alpha CVT. Glanza starts at 6.97 lakh, marginally cheaper that the equivalent Baleno Zeta petrol (INR 7.01 lakh) The range-topping Glanza V CVT would come to you for INR 8.90 lakh. Thus Toyota does have an advantage on the pricing front.
