Tata Altroz, Maruti Suzuki Baleno or Hyundai i20 Elite: Which one is better?

Tata Altroz | Rs 5.44 lakh | Tata Motors offers a wide variety of family cars, but the Altroz does deserve special mention. It provides a host of tech for the interiors as well as a spacious and comfortable cabin. There is however, only a single engine transmission option available, but an AMT is in the works as well.

Father’s Day just went by and Tata Motors took a pretty noticeable stab at some of the biggest names in the luxury hatchback segment in India. Its commercial took a veiled dig at Maruti Suzuki Baleno, Hyundai i20 and Toyota Glanza.

From praising the design to its 5-star global NCAP crash test rating, Tata is basically saying that the Altroz is the 'baap' of the hatchbacks, but does it really stack up? Here’s a comparison:

Firstly, we will not be comparing how the car looks. Simply because style is pretty subjective. When one says straight cut denims are the best, someone else might say he likes his pants tight around the waist.

One may like to hit the road with a rugged SUV but there are always people who think less is more and opt for small cars.

Also, we are going to avoid the Glanza since it is basically a Baleno with a Toyota badge.

The Baleno is the longest car of the lot with 3,995 compared to the Altroz’s 3,990. The Altroz is the widest at 1,755 mm while the Elite i20 tops out the wheelbase at 2,570 mm compared to the Altroz’s 2,501 mm. The Altroz also gets the largest boot space at 345 litres, beating the other cars by pretty big margins.

Next up is the powertrain options. Since Maruti and Hyundai have given up their diesel variants in these cars, all we can talk about are the petrol versions. All three cars get a 1.2 litre petrol engine and the Altroz may top all of them with 86 PS of maximum power. However, the Baleno also gets a smart-hybrid variant on that petrol burner which pushes its power output to 89 PS. In terms of torque, all three cars twist with the same 113 Nm of force.

Now, with all three cars squaring up quite well against each other, it all comes down to features. Rather than talk about it, here is a list of everything.

All three cars are priced almost in the same range. Altroz starts of at Rs 5.29 lakh while Baleno starts at Rs 5.63 lakh. The Hyundai Elite i20 on the other hand is the costliest at Rs 6.49 lakh.

Mind you, Hyundai is also getting ready to launch an all-new i20 and there is a very good chance of it outshining Altroz.

And as for our verdict, they are all pretty well matched.

The Altroz may be ahead of other cars in terms of some of its features, especially with cruise control, but overall, it doesn’t add up to that much as its engine specs also match the competitors.

So it does finally comes down to this: Do you prefer straight cut or skin tight jeans?

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