From the January/February 2025 issue of Car and Driver.
It’s easy to say a vehicle rides well, but much harder to explain the nuanced implications of that subjective assessment. Beyond simply adjusting springs and dampers, engineers meticulously select the characteristics of each suspension component and vehicle structure. The deeper you dig, the more complex the science of ride quality becomes.
Essentially good ride means filtering out road imperfections so that the occupants feel as little disturbance as possible. However, ride comfort is only one piece of a vehicle’s overall character. Is it worth sacrificing track performance for a better ride? That depends on the vehicle’s intended purpose.
A computer may be an engineer’s preferred traveling companion, but for this test, it was the engineers who rode shotgun. We went beyond surface-level observations and immersed ourselves in the science of ride quality with a quintet of vehicles. We enlisted Cayman Dynamics, an independent engineering firm that conducts testing for various automakers, to help. Measuring ride quality is anything but straightforward. Is a perceived impact felt or heard? Is vibration coming from the floor, the seat, the steering wheel, or somewhere else? Cayman Dynamics had the expertise to guide us in interpreting the data.
C/D editors drove the cars on several challenging area roads to gather subjective impressions, while instrumentation and measurements were conducted at Stellantis’s Chelsea Proving Grounds, where our typical performance tests are done. For this ride-quality evaluation, we utilized a different set of roads specifically designed to punish the suspensions of our selected vehicles.
The Vehicles
We wanted to examine a broad range of vehicles currently on the market, exploring diverse price points, technologies, body styles, and intended uses. These vehicles are not directly comparable, but were chosen based on our positive subjective experiences with their ride comfort.
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2024 HONDA ACCORD EX As-Tested Price: $31,005 We chose this longtime 10Best winner to assess how a well-executed mainstream sedan with a passive suspension and an entry-level price point performs. Notable Suspension Technology: Passive dampers
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2024 CHEVROLET CORVETTE STINGRAY Z51 As-Tested Price: $95,405 While ride comfort may not be its primary attribute, the Corvette is one of the best-riding sports cars. Notable Suspension Technology: Magnetorheological dampers
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2025 PORSCHE TAYCAN TURBO S As-Tested Price: $237,395 The just-launched Porsche Active Ride is one of the only truly active suspensions available today. What kind of ride-quality magic can it deliver? Notable Suspension Technology: Active and adaptive dampers, air springs
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2024 FORD F-150 RAPTOR R As-Tested Price: $114,550 The Raptor’s extended suspension travel and knobby tires should handle rough pavement with ease. Notable Suspension Technology: Adaptive dampers
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2024 ROLLS-ROYCE SPECTRE As-Tested Price: $501,575 An extravagant electric coupe from a brand known for its luxurious ride, executed to a half-million-dollar price point. It should be good, right? Notable Suspension Technology: Adaptive dampers, air springs, active anti-roll bars
Unsprung Weight
Unsprung weight, which includes the wheels and tires, is the portion of a vehicle’s mass not supported by the suspension. Larger, heavier wheels with stiffer sidewalls are harder to manage over uneven roads. Therefore, we weighed the wheel-and-tire assemblies to see which vehicles had the greatest challenge to achieve a smooth ride.
The Test Gear
The Cayman Dynamics crew attached six accelerometers to each vehicle: two on the body, one above each axle, three on the driver’s seat track (measuring fore-and-aft, side-to-side, and up-and-down movement), and one on the passenger’s seat track. The sensors were attached with hot glue, effective at measuring frequencies up to 50 hertz. Beyond that, dental cement was used for a more secure connection.
The Test Roads
All instrumented testing was conducted inside the enclosed Chelsea Proving Grounds to ensure consistent road conditions and test speeds.
The Sound of Compliance
Studies have shown that sound and perception of ride quality are linked. For non-expert evaluators, tire noise and suspension rattling influence the overall impression of the ride. While accelerometer data isn’t easily influenced by these sounds, we took sound-level readings over specific test surfaces to compare the vehicles.
On smooth concrete, the Spectre’s cabin produced nearly five times less sound pressure than the Corvette. However, over rough surfaces, the Raptor excelled.
The Honda Accord is a great benchmark. Although you feel the road texture and roughness, the Accord dances over it with sophistication and composure.
Given its cornering prowess, the Chevrolet Corvette’s ride quality is impressive. Magnetorheological (MR) dampers contribute to its impressive capabilities. In Tour mode, the Corvette’s body movement is more than most sports cars. “We don’t focus on what Track mode feels like on public roads,” says Mike Hurley, General Motors’ MR tuning guru. The Vette’s sports-car-stiff bushings and small run-flat sidewalls generally made for more impact harshness, but the fact that the ride is close to or better than the Accord’s in certain conditions is a big win.
The Ford F-150 Raptor R’s supercharged V-8 usually captures our attention, but here, the truck’s quietness and refinement are remarkable. Highway thumps are far from the driver, nearly Rolls-Royce distant. Sure, the Raptor experiences some body-on-frame jiggles. But in other areas its ability to filter out harsh impacts is second only to the Spectre’s.
The Porsche Taycan and Panamera E-Hybrid offer an optional active suspension, one of only two such systems on the market. The system keeps the body incredibly flat: Over the test surface with large bumps, body movement is significantly reduced. However on smooth roads, the Taycan’s suspension can feel harsh. Our takeaway: The worse the road, the better the Taycan feels.
No other automaker emphasizes float and plushness like Rolls-Royce. The softly sprung Rolls-Royce Spectre does a lot of listing. We found the Spectre’s cabin serenity unmatched, and even managed the large 23-inch wheels expertly.
The Data
Measuring ride objectively is complicated and some automakers continue to rely on subjective evaluation. While data sometimes supports our subjective experience, other times it leaves us scratching our heads. The roads aren’t getting better, but suspension technology is improving to smooth things out.
Dave VanderWerp, Director, Vehicle Testing at Car and Defender has spent more than 20 years in the automotive industry.”, “image_handling_notes”: “All images directly related to the article’s main subject have been kept.
