Hero Moto Corp Maestro : Detailed Review

The suddenly burgeoning scooter segment has seen a lot of action recently. Mahindra came out with the new Duro, Honda came out with the all-new Dio and then Piaggio recently launched its Vespa. Hero had shown its brand new offering, the Maestro in London when Hero MotoCorp was unveiled to the world. And now it’s finally here in the flesh.

When it comes to scooters, Pune is one of the best places to gauge the response considering almost all of the fair sex  here thrive on the twist and go machinery. So when a brand new red shiny Maestro came to us, I immediately took it for a spin in one of Pune’s most popular areas. As expected, the Maestro turned a lot of heads and garnered a long list of questions too. So how different is the Maestro compared to the competition? Compared to the Honda Activa, the current champion of the segment, the Maestro does not really look ground-breaking.

But it is indeed a good looking scooter. The first thing that strikes you is the size. The generous dimensions means the scooter is sure to be a hit with men compared to Hero’s other offering, the Pleasure which is just “for her”.

The beaky front is further accentuated by a tiny black visor which really adds a lot of character to the scooter. Neat looking dual coloured rear-view mirrors complete the good looking front. The body features a nice swoopy design. A nice touch is the black plastic cladding running along the side. But it does tend to get dirty pretty quickly. The shapely tail lights and a well executed body coloured grabrail bring up the tidy rear.

The instrument console looks pretty good too and features a digital window which includes the fuel gauge, odometer and a tripmeter as well. Overall quality however could have been better. The silver plastic insert on the console for example looks slightly cheap and the trip meter button popped out a couple of times.   

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Straddling the Maestro is a very comforting experience. The low saddle height and the flat floor board make for a brilliant seating position. Thumbing the starter gives out a familiar whirr. That’s because the Maestro features the same 109cc unit from the Honda Activa pushing out 8.2PS @ 7500rpm and 9.10Nm @ 5500rpm. Refinement is top notch and so is the power delivery. While the scooter felt a bit restrained in the beginning, a little bit of running in the engine helped. A 0-60km/h time of 9.19 seconds isn’t very quick, but it’s pretty much on par with the Activa. But it did manage a very respectable top speed of 93km/h.

Hauling it down from those speeds needs better brakes though. A 60–0km/h time of 3.5 seconds is average but what is lacking is the feel and the bite needed during emergency situations. The combined braking system gets one out of locking situations though.

Good ergonomics and a cushy seat give the Maestro a very comfortable ride but apart from that the age old bottom link set-up at the front can handle very little. Bad roads and potholes upset the scooter and the rider. A telescopic front is the need of the hour.

On the very important mileage front, the Maestro did pretty well and dished out 44kmpl which means a full tank of 5.3 litres will easily see the Maestro do a distance of about  233km which is quite decent.

At Rs 56,891, the Maestro is about two grand more expensive than the Honda Activa. So for the extra that you pay you get a better looking scooter and slightly more modern equipment. The Maestro will also appeal to both the sexes which is a good thing for Hero. In fact when I asked my colleague Vidya about which scooter she would choose between the Activa and the Maestro, the latter was her immediate choice.

With good reliability and a proven after sales network, Hero then definitely has a product which should give the Activa a good fight. With Yamaha coming in with its twist and go goods soon as well, the scooter skirmishes are just beginning.