As our time with our long-term test car, the Suzuki Baleno, draws to a close, we found ourselves ruminating deeply on what made it such a hit over the past five months. Admittedly, identifying its strongest trait required little thought.
We were reminded of its impressive frugality with each (infrequent) visit to the fuel pumps. Its 37-litre tank cost about R510 to fill and yielded a real-world range in excess of 600km. Suzuki claims a consumption figure of 5.1l/100km, while our tester settled around 5.8l/100km. The odometer currently sits on 9,000km.
It joined the test fleet in October 2018 and custodians from the Japanese carmaker will collect it at the end of March, before filtering it into the second-hand car market.
There are some issues to report before the recap of our exploits behind the wheel. A glitchy infotainment system and occasionally unresponsive steering-mounted audio controls were noted in our logbook.
And one colleague suffered from chronic ergonomic discomfort, struggling to find a seating position that was just right. But he also makes use of a vapour-based inhalation device, so we took his criticism with a pinch of candy floss.
A factory-fitted bicycle rack allowed me to explore two-wheeled mountaineering. Full disclosure: I barely completed my first outride, turned around for lunch and never hopped onto the saddle again. The only reminder of my attempt is a pair of spandex shorts at the back of the cupboard.
There's also a little dent on the roof of the Baleno created while trying to fasten the borrowed Momsen into place. Sorry, Suzuki. The lower section of the bumper also sustained a scuff as a result of an encounter with a pothole. These were our only mishaps.
Even our motorcycling friends praised the Baleno after an economy duel against a Suzuki SV650. Over a 51km stint we used approximately 3.2l of fuel, while the crotch-rocket, with Mat Durrans astride, used 1.5l.
Yes, we lost, as we generally do in those car-against-bike features - but at least the defeat was by a smallish margin this time.
While its mettle as an urban commuter shone through, the Baleno also experienced its share of long-distance mileage. This includes two trips to KwaZulu-Natal, with possibly one more on the horizon. On these occasions, the comments about power deficits begin to emerge. A smidgen more than the modest 68kW and 130Nm would not go amiss, perhaps.
On the flipside, we found that when employing smart hypermiling techniques, the Baleno can sip as little as 4.7l/100km - which makes for a driving range of 787km.
What was the adage about being slow, steady and ultimately victorious? The Baleno 1.4 GLX manual goes for R239,900...