They have tried to make it a bit more lively, But looking at this car and which segment it is coming in, If they just had to give black then I guess, They could have included white touches somewhere, Or touches of maybe some Hello guys, Welcome to Tech How, I am Virat and right now I am at Maruti Pavilion, At the auto expo 2023. The car we have with us is based on, The Heartect platform of Maruti. It’s another SUV, Or rather compact SUV, But take a look at its name. FRONX Do tell us in the comments, How would you call this name? And of all the car names we have seen recently, This is one of those names that is really difficult to pronounce. We even asked a few people here how they would pronounce the name? Because normally, Manufacturers want their car’s names, Should sound simple.
But, This is the Fronx from Maruti which is a new compact SUV, Or crossover, Because when we talk about Heartect platform, This is based on the Baleno. All the website stories and speculations we are reading since a few days, Calling it the Baleno Cross, Well, it’s that. Here we can see many elements, Which are very similar to the products of, The Nexa Maruti. The very first thing that you will see, Are the crystal LEDs. Let me just turn them on for a minute, To show you how they look when lit up. So, Let me just start the car. Now you can notice that, How much do they resemble the Maruti Grand Vitara, As that car gets similar treatment for DRL. Basically not the DRLs, But this kind of light alignment is quite similar. And to be honest, I feel they appear a bit dull on Grand Vitara, And it is the same story here as well. If you see here below, You get the headlamp unit. And it is in a tripod shape. So one is above, And two below that.
Actually, just let me turn on them too. So, So the DRLs doubles up as the indicator, And these are the low beams which are LEDs. Let me show you the high beam too. So this is how the lights work on this car. Let us now check the grille. As you can see, The grille you get here, Very much resembles the Maruti family. Even if you see, Maruti Swift too gets such trapezoidal shaped grille, With a chrome strip running across, And the Suzuki logo on its center. Down below you have these slats. And skid plates finished in silver. Now as we come towards the side, Just take a complete look before I get into the details. So let’s start with alloy wheels. Here you get 16-inch alloy wheels. Which gets chrome and piano black elements. The exact size of the wheels is, 195/60 R16. And as I said, They are finished in silver and piano black colours. Which looks quite good. Now when you look at the car from the side, I feel Maruti will face some kind of problems, While explaining what exactly has been done. Basically, the design language that we see on the Baleno hatchback, You will notice the glass area from the A-Pillar, That is tapering at the back. Along with the design language of C-Pillar, Combined with the spoiler, And the taillights, Not the tail lights as such since they are different from the Baleno.
But if overall I show this particular part of the car, You will be like, Is it a Baleno? Or is it a Fronx? There will be a question mark over it. Going to the rear of the car, You will see that Maruti has tried to give it a modern touch. And that is the LED strip of the brake light, Running across the width of the whole car, Accentuating the overall size. It looks better from the rear than the side, And the front. And I think, The coupe shape, which is the talking point, Is highlighted here with the rake angle of the, Rear windshield. Looking at the elements of the taillights, You get these similar arrow patterns. You get a SmartHybrid badge over here. Fronx logo has been placed here. You get these reflectors on the lower part of the bumper, Along with rear parking sensors. And at the same time, You get a rear skid plate as well. Now let me show you the boot of the car. So this is the boot. Looks quite spacious right? You get the spare wheel inside the boot itself. Let me just show you. So the spare wheel is actually a steel wheel. And the tyre size is 195/60 R16. So the spare wheel size is similar to the rest of the tyres. Now it’s time to step inside the car. So as you get inside the Fronx you will see that, It’s a very similar story from the inside. It clearly resembles the Baleno and as well as the Grand Vitara, Or even the Brezza. The interiors will surely remind you of the design aspect, Of the Maruti family. You get this 9-inch touchscreen infotainment.
So let me just take you through it quickly. So on top, you get notifications and quick access. Then, As I get into the dashboard, I get the information related to, Fuel economy, average speed, energy flow, and wireless charging. You even get smartphone connectivity like, Android Auto and Apple Carplay. Which you can connect from here. And this is how the 360-degree camera looks like. Switching that off. So switching that off. Let’s take a look at the steering wheel. So, as this car gets a proper automatic transmission, You get paddle shifters behind the steering wheel. And at the same time, You get cruise controls on the right, And media controls on the left. You also get the heads-up display, Which is not activating right now, Even though the car is in ignition. While every other function is working. So it is a leather-wrapped steering wheel with some piano black touches. And also, it is squared off from the bottom. You get controls to pick up or end the call, Along with voice assistance. Alright? Coming to the instrument cluster, You will see it is an analog unit with, The speedometer on the right, RPM gauge on left, And MID in the center. To browse through the MID you get a button on the cluster.
There is no button on the steering wheel. So you will have to use this button only to go through the various menus. Below here you get the controls of climate control, You get a wireless charging pad, Along with a USB charging port, And a socket of 12V charging port. You have these twin cup holders at the front. This is the gear lever for the automatic gearbox. As this is the car with booster jet engine. You get some space below the handbrake, And below the centre armrest as well. Also, the armrest gets a sliding mechanism. This is the glovebox which has decent enough space. Overall if I talk about the finishing of the interior, Just like the dark theme of the Baleno, Maruti has gone with a dark theme interior for Fronx too. You do get silver elements on the dashboard, Brown elements down here, And also some bronze elements are included here. They have tried to make it bit more lively, But looking at this car and which segment it is coming in, I feel it could have been done even much better instead of giving brown. Because in cars, everyone knows that brown and black don’t mix. And it is the same case here too. If they just had to give black then I guess they could have included white touches somewhere, Or touches of maybe some funky colours. At the end of the day, Its a car for the youth, For the masses. And people like something like that. I mean, Maybe Maruti thinks this is premium for the Nexa, But I think if it had options of brighter colour, Then it would have been a lot better. Here you also get an auto dimming inside rear view mirror. You get these cabin lights on the top. And a sunshade with the mirror along with a light. Now let’s check the second row of the car. So here we are in the second row. And the story here is, You get a decent amount of space, Even with the seat way behind.
Even the headroom is decent enough. And at the same time, The recline angle could have been better. Let me check if I have some adjustment for this. But no, I can’t adjust this anymore. Neither do I have an armrest. Although it gets 3 adjustable headrests, 6 Airbags, And obviously it has seat belts for each of the passengers. But we do know that the car has not, Or rather the Baleno has not scored that great in NCAP before. But the new Baleno which was launched recently, And even the Fronx, Both are based on the same platform. So we do expect the car to perform better. But there is no reports yet from the Global Ncap. If I talk about the features in the second row, Then you get these AC vents, Place to keep your phone, And two USB fast charging ports. The only question I want to ask is, Can there be more in the second row? You just get a cabin light on the top. I thought Maruti could have offered a sunroof in this car, But here the car displayed, We do not see one. And maybe that is something people would have wanted.
So I feel Maruti has missed it out here. Lets walk out now. So guys, Maruti has introduced this car with two engine options. One is the new 1.2L DualJet engine, And other is the old, 1.0L Boosterjet Engine which was used in the old Baleno. You also get an option of automatic and manual transmission, With both the engines. Secondly I want to say, Why would you consider such a car? But first we have to drive it, And then we could tell you. Because on paper its, Well Maruti has announced two SUVs today, And that one there is an SUV. But here what we have is a car, Which is just 50mm more taller than the regular Baleno on which it is based. So, Where is the fun? What are you paying for? Is it the boosterjet engine that is packed in this car? Let’s find out. So do stay tuned for that as we have not driven the car yet.
Take care, Goodbye!