Maruti Baleno: which variant should you actually buy?

What this is, and what it isn’t

This is a buying guide, not a road test. We haven’t driven this facelift, so you won’t find opinions here about how it rides or steers — anyone offering you those after a launch event is guessing too.

What we can do is read the price list properly. Every figure below is ex-showroom, taken from Maruti's own NEXA listing on 24 September 2026. Prices change with offers and by state, and the on-road cost adds road tax, registration and insurance on top. Ask us for the on-road number in your city and we’ll work it out with you.

The ladder, and what each rung costs

There are five trim levels, Sigma, Delta, Zeta, Alpha and Alpha (O), spread across 13 variants once manual, automatic and CNG are counted. This is the full list, ex-showroom, from Maruti's own NEXA pricing on 24 September 2026:

Why the last step is the interesting one

Three steps of roughly a lakh each, and then one of ₹40,000. That last one is where Level 2 ADAS appears.

Put plainly: Maruti charges ₹1.10 lakh to move from Zeta to Alpha, which buys ventilated front seats and a Clarion sound system. It then charges ₹40,000 to add driver assistance on top. Whatever you make of ADAS in Indian traffic, it’s the most affordable thing on this price list relative to what the steps beneath it cost.

That’s why our advice isn’t simply to buy the top trim. It’s that Alpha, specifically, is the variant that makes least sense. You’d have paid the largest premium on the ladder and then stopped one small step short of the only safety-related upgrade.

The automatic is better value than it looks

The AGS automatic is ₹50,000 over the manual, and it’s the same ₹50,000 at Delta, Zeta and Alpha. No trim penalises you for wanting two pedals.

More unusually, Maruti's own figures rate the automatic as more efficient than the manual: 24.77 km/l against 23.80. That’s the reverse of the usual trade-off, and it removes the argument dealers have long made against automatics in this class.

If the car is mostly for city driving, we’d take the AGS without much hesitation. Half a lakh is less than the gap between two trim levels, and the economy figure is better.

CNG: how far you need to drive

CNG costs ₹92,500 over the equivalent petrol manual, at both Delta and Zeta. Whether that’s worth it’s arithmetic, not opinion.

Maruti rates the petrol at 23.80 km/l and the CNG at 33.61 km/kg. At roughly ₹95 a litre for petrol and ₹76 a kilogram for CNG, check both in your city, they vary a lot, you’re running at about ₹3.99 per kilometre on petrol against ₹2.26 on CNG. A saving of around ₹1.73 per kilometre.

Divide the ₹92,500 premium by that and the break-even lands near 53,000 kilometres. At 1,000 km a month that’s about four and a half years before you’re ahead. At 2,000 km a month, a little over two years.

So CNG is a straightforward yes for high-mileage and commercial use, and a fairly clear no if the car does school runs and weekend errands. Note too that CNG stops at Zeta. If you want ventilated seats or ADAS, that decision is made for you.

What we’d skip

Accessory packages are where the remaining margin lives. Chrome garnishes, grille trims and bumper protectors are inexpensive individually and add up to a meaningful number once a showroom bundles them into the invoice.

Our rule is simple: anything that changes how the car looks can wait until after delivery, when you aren’t deciding under time pressure and can price it independently. Anything affecting safety or usability, a reversing camera on a variant that lacks one, say, is worth settling before you sign.

We’d also treat the extended warranty as its own decision rather than something bundled into the deal.

The honest summary

Buy Zeta if you want the Baleno to feel complete without paying for comfort features. Buy Alpha (O) if your budget reaches ₹9.5 lakh. Don’t buy Alpha.

Take the automatic if you drive in a city. It’s affordable relative to a trim step and more efficient on paper. Take CNG only if you’ll genuinely cover 50,000 kilometres or more.

We earn nothing from Maruti, from NEXA or from any dealer. If you want the on-road figure for your city, or a second opinion on what a showroom has quoted you, that’s exactly what we do.