Suzuki Baleno Reviews from Australia and New Zealand

The only problem we have had was one electronic problem with the fuel management system which was fixed under warranty.

There have been no other electrical problems, despite having electronic everything.

We have had a 2000 Australian spec Baleno wagon since new, and it's living in the worst of tropical conditions: Darwin, Australia. It has got 60,000 km on it as of December 2005.

It is great to drive, very manoeuvrable, and easy to park, even as a wagon. It will sit on 140 km/hr on our open-roads, and copes well with an after-market cruise-control.

The air con keeps up with tropics, but it is either on or off; no climate control.

One minor complaint would be the quality of the trims. The exterior door handle surrounds and some of interior centre-pin type fasteners are not up to it.

Overall, I would recommend it. It was probably a bit over-priced as new, and Suzuki didn’t market it in Oz, so there aren’t too many around.

Nothing has gone wrong with the car... it runs as smoothly as the day we got it...

The Suzuki Baleno is a great car and I would definitely recommend it to anyone in the market for a used car.

The car is reliable with relatively cheap service costs and running costs.

The car has all the trimmings including power windows, power mirrors, air con, remote central locking, alloy wheels, power steering, CD player and the list goes on.

The car has a very nippy engine and is perfect for highway cruising.

The cars steering is responsive and is a great drive on mountain roads.

The cars interior is not to everyones liking, in the fact that it is a tad too small for tall people and the Grey plastics are not as good as newer models, but that is to be expected with a 2000 model car.

The car is super reliable and we have never had any troubles with the car...

I would tthoroughly recommend it to anyone.

Belts (excluding cambelt) done at 110,000.

Clutch at 120,000

Gearbox at 121,000.

Drivers seat is cheap and moves around. Rear boot carpet is held down by velcro.

Suzuki went overboard on the window seals, meaning the windows crawl up and down due to high friction.

This was a great car when first purchased. It was modern and had a full set of features for the price. The dealer replaced the cambelt and other belts before the purchase making me think I was set for trouble free motoring. Oh how wrong I was.

I have always owned Mitsi's and Toyota's and didn't think a car could ever be this bad. While it was good on GAS this seemed to be its only benefit as I witnessed the sudden implosion of the vehicle.

To have a Clutch and Gearbox go in a matter of km's within each other left my wallet hurting. Suzuki parts are also VERY expensive NZ. Which if I had known at the time would not have bothered buying this vehicle.

The belts which were replaced by the dealer had to be replaced 15,000km's later because of noise.

My outlook on brands such as Suzuki is they are only good for 100,000 km's suiting fleet vehicles. Do not buy one of these vehicles if it is anywhere near 100,000 km's.

Though manufacturers such as Toyota and Nissan are more expensive, there is a reason for this - you can't go wrong.