[aaggoswami]

Nice thread.
A decade or half ago, I would have voted for Sporty. Now that I am already cross mid 30's, traffic shooting through the roof a medium set up is something that suits me best. Some stiffness at city speeds is OK, but the highway stability at regular cruising speeds of 90-100 kmph should be good along with safe handling for sudden directional maneuvers.

The average speeds that I can manage in most of GJ highways with breaks in between is 55-60 kmph. For such long distance traveling, a medium set up is comfortable without any compromise for regular driving. Enthusiast at heart but for all practical purposes, medium set up works best.

[Guna]

Voted for 'medium'.
After driving for more than 22 years and owning multiple cars, I have realised that suspension is really a complex topic.
Some of my observations:
'Soft' doesn't necessarily mean 'comfortable' : I have owned Honda Citys from 2 generations and now an i20 Elite. These cars are supposed to be softly sprung but they were never comfortable even at slow speeds over bad roads. There is too much sideways movement and cars get unsettled while going over bad surfaces. Probably the trick is to get the right dampening which these cars never mastered.

Firm' suspension doesn't always guaranty a planted ride at high speeds, especially if the road surface is bit wavy/not flat. My Tiguan results in fair bit of sideways movements at high speeds on roads which are not well laid out. Forester which had slightly softer (still firm by general standards) suspension would give much flatter ride as the unevenness are absorbed by the suspension.

I have come to believe that cars with stiffer, 'long travel' suspension fitted with fatter tyres (tall section) would give a best balance.

[Vid6639]

I'm now a convert to soft. More fun to drive a softly tuned car and push it to limit than to push a stiff car nowhere near its limit. Also the plush ride over the amazing bangalore roads is a boon.

I wouldn't mind medium but even that gets uncomfortable sometimes on our roads and plush works best.

I enjoyed hustling an S class more than the tighter CLS through the ghats.

[Maverick Avi]

Soft all the way. I had been driving Marutis all my life and didn't quite understand suspension rigidness until I got home a Ford. Now I can understand what a rigid suspension is. I live in Delhi and speeds rarely go above 60 with average somewhere around 25km/hr. Medium or hard suspension just makes all the minute road undulations travel through my spine. I do not have cars with big tyres to help either so soft is what I prefer hands down.

[vredesbyrd]

Voted for Medium because:

There are two cases here:
1. High GC vehicle: I would prefer Medium or Soft since the extra GC will ensure that it does not scrape on bad roads
2. Low GC vehicle: Would prefer it to be stiff because the suspension will not compress that easily, hence saving underbody hits

Some suspension setups that I liked:
1. 2017+ Vento: A little on the stiff side but really good for handling and there is no body roll. More comfortable than dad's Swift
2. 2011-13 530d: Slightly soft but comfortable. I don't have much to say as it was a relatively short ride.
3. 2016-2018 Endeavour: Stiff again but really comfortable. Great handler for it's size and the fact that it is a ladder frame. Eats bad roads like nobody's business
4. 2021+ Fortuner: It is better than the pre-facelift (which is okay) and far ahead of the 1st gen. A bit wallowy sometimes but I can live with it as long as I don't have to slow down
5. 2022 Scorpio-N: Gets really close to Endeavour in comfort and stability but the rear end is a bit cheeky
6. 2012-2015 C220: It is very supple but softly sprung and way too many underbody scrapes. Felt really uneasy about taking it outside city limits but I did, very slowly.

Funnily enough, the two benchmark vehicles for ride quality (i.e. Duster and Hexa), I've never even sat in them once so can't really say.

[07CR]

Voted for Balanced. My dad's Ecosport S 1.5, has a super stiff suspension and is a nightmare to drive on potholed roads.

My Kia Sonet on the other hand has relatively balanced suspension and is a boon in city conditions. On highways too, it's not a massive downgrade than Ecosport.

[PrasannaDhana]

Voted for Soft.

My ex-daily was the ciaz. It had a soft suspension set up which was amazing for my daily usage. Now I use a storme which again has a soft set up and an altroz which has a firm suspension set up. Anything less than 300 km a day, altroz is fine. More than that, I prefer the storme, specially when roads are not perfect.

My next car will be one with a softer suspension setup for sure.

[RaceCyborg]

I would certainly love to say that I prefer firm suspension setups all day everyday, but given the conditions of our famed Indian roads, that is just asking to get my spine destroyed .

My preference is to have a suspension tune that is setup to somewhere between medium and stiff. The goldilocks zone for the car enthusiast if you will.

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

My ex-daily was the ciaz. It had a soft suspension set up which was amazing for my daily usage. Now I use a storme which again has a soft set up and an altroz which has a firm suspension set up. Anything less than 300 km a day, altroz is fine. More than that, I prefer the storme, specially when roads are not perfect.

Oddly enough, I find the Altroz suspension tune to be almost perfectly matched to my liking. I wanted it to be a little more stiffer in fact .

[Kosfactor]

I do not have a preference as such but I like it when the suspension suits the character of the vehicle. When the drive train, steering , suspension, brakes - all comes together nicely for a fantastic dynamic package - love driving such vehicles (even if I wont buy them).

Voted for Sporty.

[shankar.balan]

If we had had an option for ‘Adjustable’ and ‘Air’ I guess we know which way the votes would have gone. And one mustnt forget the extremely important role of tyres in the suspension. They are after all, one’s absolute first contact with the driving surface.

The AVO suspension dampers on my Thar are adjustable - 16 steps. Clockwise turn for stiffening. Anti clockwise turn for softening. And by God, they are a real boon. I use the stock CEAT All Terrain Tyres inflated to 34-35PSI.
And I drive it as a Jeepy thing should be driven.

Ive of course rebuilt my Cooper’s susoension with all stock OEM and OES components, dampers and all. I have also managed to mitigate my Cooper’s generally stiff ride by using nice fat side-walled tubeless tyres and yet not compromised the handling. Runflats make the ride terribly hard. I use 32-33PSI on my tubeless tyres.

The Gypsy suspension, people always unfairly criticise for being too hard and bouncy and uncomfortable. In my experience, believe it or not, if one hasnt fiddled with the vehicle’s factory settings and stance and geometry and tyres and lift kits and all the rest of those ‘accoutrements’, the leaf springs are perfectly comfortable along with the OEM cross-ply nylon tyres which should be inflated exactly as per the manufacturers recommendation of 20PSI. This makes for a very easy steering and a comfortable ride too!

Thats my 3 bits.

Friends like Bibendum, KMT, RobiMahanta, Condor and Keroo can easily corroborate what I am saying above.

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by RaceCyborg

Oddly enough, I find the Altroz suspension tune to be almost perfectly matched to my liking. I wanted it to be a little more stiffer in fact .

Altroz suspension is perfect for having fun, be it superb stability at triple digit speeds or taking corners & twisties. The issue is when driving on bad roads at slow speeds. One tends to feel the road pretty evidently, when compared to cars like ciaz/city or even Slavia.

I found Slavia a bit softer than Rapid. Rapid was perfect balance between ride and handling. Altroz tips a little more towards handling than ride.

[pranavt]

Voted for Firm. I'm 35 now, maybe my opinion will change once I get into my 40s. Probably not though. The only problem is when I drive to Goa and the road after crossing Kolhapur towards Goa is usually quite awful. But a couple of hours of discomfort is acceptable.

[GeeTee TSI]

I would prefer it soft (like a Volvo B11R even) but the vehicle needs to be driven (hustled rather than pushed) skillfully to make full use of the comfort. No attacking corners or switchbacks and no clumsy prodding of the brakes, but I can live with that in my current phase of life.

I have always read the Octavia to be softly sprung than say a Polo relative to their segment peers. But in the real world (with my comfort orientated driving), I could not spot the loss of handling

[Akshay2010]

I find the suspension setup of VW Vento to be the best for enthusiasts. It is on the stiffer side and with the stock Apollo tires it used to give thuds on expansion joints and road patch work. Now with Michelin 4ST (soft compound) tires, these thuds are gone and the ride is acceptable on bad roads.
So a perfect solution for enthusiasts in India would be to go for stiff suspension setup and complement it with soft compound tires.

[rahulk2510]

Voted for medium.

Good thread, but does anyone have a list of all current vehicles available sorted as per the suspension set up? Would be great for prospective buyers to shortlist before going for a test drive.

I also understand that this could be a subjective list but nevertheless should be useful information to start with.

Best Regards,