How about you grab eachothers ballsacks and get rid of the damn cars?
Come on guys, lets be civil.
A sports sedan is going to have a much stiffer ride than the 'floaty' ride of a full sized sedan. I can tell you that my Lexus GS350 has a much harsher ride than the Genesis. And my Friend's Porsche is bone jarring stiff.
Next time do not bother to even look at a 'Sports Sedan', if the ride is too stiff for you. Look at a Toyota Avalon or
Buick La Crosse or Lucerne.
This isn't the first time I've said this and I'm not the only one but I'll repeat it again. The issue many people are having IS NOT the overall stiffness, but the overall balance of the suspension. The car heaves too much over some surfaces. I have driven stiffer (much) and softer suspensions that damped better. The car can heave over some surfaces and even get into a resonance condition over even road bumps (like expansion joints on some highways) such that it tips forward and backward like a porpoise. This is not caused by it being too stiff or too sporty. It is caused by not refining the suspension properly.
I'm puzzled as to why somebody would purchase any car if he/she didn't like the way it rides. If you're accustomed to floating along in a
Buick or something, you would sense the difference in the first 3 seconds of a test drive in a Genesis. For pete's sake, if you don't like it then don't buy the car.
Again, it isn't the sportiness of the suspension that is bothering some people, but the lack of refinement. This can come across as too stiff and bouncy but it is more the later, than the former. My guess is the car should have a lower high speed damping rate, and a higher low speed rate.
It also isn't something you might notice in 3 seconds. We test drove the Genesis for two days, over some nasty Detroit potholed roads. While we noted it fealt considerably stiffer than our previous car, the worst problems didn't manifest themselves over the roads we drove, including my wife's drive to work.
However, subsequently, we found some roads where it acts downright terrible. For example it does not like the downhill section of Long Lake just West of Woodward avenue. It pitches more than any car I've ever driven on that section. There was another section of road we drove on, in Royal Oak if I recall, where it fealt like the car got airborn...yielding a feeling of lack of control. I've not driven on a section of freeway that causes the porpoising issue, but if I did, and I had to drive on that road every day, I'd be very upset.
dg_moore:
Unfortunately there seems to be quite a few Genesis owners who's only pre-purchase research included reading reviews of the car. It's obvious that a proper test drive on a variety of surfaces was not done. In fact, a couple have admitted to not even driving one at all prior to purchase.
They get no sympathy from me.
That comes across as insulting, which I think we should avoid on these forums. You don't need to sympathize with them, but if you aren't in their shoes so you don't know what there particular situation is therefore it is premature to judge them. Even with a test drive we didn't notice how unsettled the car could get because we didn't hit roads that caused the suspension to really act up till after we bought our car. Because we drive these roads only on occasion, and because we haven't experienced the porpoising others have, we aren't nearly as unhappy as they might be.
I test drove both 2009 V6 & V8 and felt immediately the harsh ride. But I liked the strong, hard feel to the steering and felt that at half the price of comparable cars (IMHO) you just can't beat the Bang for the Buck. Researching a car on the internet is great, attending the Auto shows is very informative, but fellows, you just gotta get behind the
wheel and drive the buggy. So no surprises!
I agree a test drive is the best way to go but a test drive isn't necessarilly going to unearth all the bugs in a car, and many dealers limit test drives to a standard loop of their choosing. Not everyone lives in a metropolitan area where they have their pick of dealers to go to.