This Maruti Baleno Makes a Desperate Attempt to Look Macho

Maruti Baleno is one of the most popular hatchbacks in India. Its lightweight body and rev-happy engine also make the Baleno popular among auto enthusiasts, who buy the car and then upgrade it with performance parts. Some people, however, aren’t interested in performance upgrades, rather focusing on the aesthetics of the car. Here, we have a modified Maruti Baleno that tries to look like a monster truck.

The picture of the modified Maruti Baleno you seen here has been posted by Niyad Shayaz on the Facebook page of Maruti Suzuki Baleno owner’s club. In this photograph, you can see that the car is modified in a weird manner. It has been raised by almost a foot on all fours, and gets off-road rims and tyres as well. Other than that, the entire exterior of the car has been given a glossy silver finish. The taillights have blacked-out, for a sporty appeal. Overall, we feel like this car needs a bigger set of rims, which would have made it into a proper monster-truck-lookalike.

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This particular Maruti Baleno is an older model (pre-facelift). It was available with two different engine options. The first one is a 1.2-litre, naturally aspirated, inline-4 petrol motor. It can generate a maximum power of 83 PS and a peak torque of 113 Nm. The other option is a 1.3-litre, turbocharged, inline-4 diesel mill, which is capable of producing 75 PS and 190 Nm. A 5-speed manual transmission is available as standard, while a CVT is offered on the petrol version only. The current version is only available with the 1.2-litre petrol engine. There is also a mild-hybrid version which comes with a ‘Dualjet’ upgrade which produces a slightly higher power- 90 PS. The diesel motor has been discontinued.

We’ve seen plenty of such modifications in India. Previously, we’ve covered plenty of Maruti 800s turned into SUVs or monster trucks, but this is perhaps the first time we’ve come across a Baleno like this. Usually, we see a Baleno (and even the Swift) being made into a track-day tool owing to its lightweight chassis and decent handling characteristics.