Rough Ride (rear)

[LanceB]

I've had my loaded Gen since 7-31 and really love the car but concur with most of the posters here - the ride is just to stiff. I drive over 50mi each way to work here in SoCal on pretty decent roads and avg. around 75 MPH.

Overpass dips etc. sometimes send me out of the drivers seat with only the seatbelt keeping me behind the wheel. I was next to a 750i on a bumpy section of freeway and they were floating flawlessly while I was bouncing embarrassingly.

It's not too soft - it's WAYYYY too stiff - we're talking NASCAR stiff. In an effort to beat the 5 series Hyundai went too far. There has to be a simple way to adjust this to a drivers liking. Many drivers may prefer it like this but I think most would go for something closer to Lexus than Indy.

I really believe this is a serious problem and not matter how much I love everything about the car, I may not have bought it had the dealer not been in an area with brand new roads.

Lance

 

[jwaters943]

Did you check the tire pressure? Either you're really sensitive or something is wrong with your car. The ride quality is definitely more LS460 than 5-Series IMO.

 

[dshelley]

I think it's interesting the reference we use to compare the ride of our Genesis. I traded a 2006 Sonata for mine. The other vehicles are a 2005 diesel powered Dodge Ram 2500, and a BMW z4 with the sport package, both of which will jar one's teeth on anything resembling a rough road.. My own references were nothing similar to an Infiniti Q or Lexus LS so as I find the ride in front and rear to be quite smooth, I do (now) wonder how much weight the rear seat will support before bottoming becomes an issue. I'll find a couple of "good-ole-boys' and report back what I learn...

 

[ecommando]

Check your tire pressure to make sure it's around 33. I think the Genesis ride is a lot softer than my BMW528i and my Porsche.

I've had my loaded Gen since 7-31 and really love the car but concur with most of the posters here - the ride is just to stiff. I drive over 50mi each way to work here in SoCal on pretty decent roads and avg. around 75 MPH.

Overpass dips etc. sometimes send me out of the drivers seat with only the seatbelt keeping me behind the wheel. I was next to a 750i on a bumpy section of freeway and they were floating flawlessly while I was bouncing embarrassingly.

It's not too soft - it's WAYYYY too stiff - we're talking NASCAR stiff. In an effort to beat the 5 series Hyundai went too far. There has to be a simple way to adjust this to a drivers liking. Many drivers may prefer it like this but I think most would go for something closer to Lexus than Indy.

I really believe this is a serious problem and not matter how much I love everything about the car, I may not have bought it had the dealer not been in an area with brand new roads.

Lance

 

[kbmuenkel]

For the first time since July, I had a 90 mile road trip with 5 people in the car. I asked several times whether my passengers considered the rear seat ride as "rough". None said so. They did say they "felt bumps" but did not consider the ride rough.

My take is that the Genesis has a mid-sporty feel to it...not as tight and sporty as a BMW and certainly firmer than an ES350, an Avalon, or a Luzerne. It is very similar to the CTS with an FE2 suspension.

I do not feel Hyundai has missed on this. I like the ride and handling. My few passengers have not complained and when asked, did not offer any criticism that would concern me.

 

[JOwest]

I have not noticed the rough ride in the back, but I will check that. I did notice something odd with wind noise/turbulence and the rear windows open. When either rear window is rolled down (front windows rolled up), there is significant loud staccato-like wind noise...it really hurts your eardrums and it gets worse as you drive faster. Perhaps this is related to the rough ride...not sure. Has anyone experienced this? It happens with either or both rear windows open. Am I just being too sensitive?

Hi Chuman,
I have an Audi A6 with the 2.7T turbo engine. If I left either one or both rear windows open I have this terrible wind turbulence as well. I thing this is very common with most cars.

 

[rmwweb]

I'm surprised to see that this thread has gone quiet. I have to say that the quality of the ride is the biggest issue I have with my Genesis. Actually it's pretty much the only issue. I'm experiencing the opposite of what is being talked about on this thread though. My rear passengers haven't complained yet but I'm experiencing a very unpleasant ride (on rough roads) in the drivers seat regardless of how many people are in the car with me. I just sold my '99 Acura TL that I drove to work on the same route every day for four years and I'm now driving the Genesis on the same route in the same traffic conditions. There are some parts of the route where the ride in the Genesis is shockingly worse than with the TL. It kind of dips into a low point in the road with the front end and then hammers into it with the rear.

The one thing I have noticed is that -probably because the car is so quiet - you hear every expansion joint or crack repair that you drive over quite a bit more than in other cars. I've noticed that if I turn the volume of the music up enough to drown out the sound of the tires going over the little bumps in the road then the whole ride seems smoother - it still doesn't help with anything beyond a small bump though.

I've ordered snow tires for my car with the 17" rims and will be having them installed in about 2 weeks. it will be interesting to see if they make a difference. I'll report back once I've had a chance to try them out.

For the record, I have verified that my tire pressures are properly set.

 

[Sal Collaziano]

Hey, RM. So are you noticing that the near is too soft and that it hits the bump stops over potholes or large bumps? In regards to the car being so quiet that you hear every expansion joint or crack repair - maybe Hyundai needs to work a little more on the road noise aspect of the vehicle. I don't believe I've ever heard this complaint from Lexus LS owners...

 

[rmwweb]

I've been struggling with how to describe the problem I'm experiencing especially in light of all the positive comments I've been reading about how smooth the car is. That really hadn't been my experience at all. I have to correct myself if I gave the impression that I'm feeling the rear suspension bottom out, I don't think that's actually happened - I don't have people in the back seat very often, but I did do a road trip of about 100 miles each way with my brother and his wife in the back seat and they didn't complain about the ride at all. Meanwhile my wife and I are in the front seats and I'm feeling like I'm getting tossed around worse than just about any car I've ever been in. My wife commented that she found the ride far less smooth than our 99 TL, she commented on how quiet the car is but wasn't dazzled with the ride.

I've only got just over 1500 miles on the car and most of it is around the city at city speeds but even at 25 to 35 MPH hitting a bump or dip of any size is an unpleasant event. It just seems as if the front end and rear end of the car are out of sync with each other and accentuate the bump rather than null it out. I don't have any sense of the ride being too soft yet I can't believe that BMW or any other manufacturer could sell many cars that are stiffer than what I'm feeling. I've never driven a BMW but everyone says they ride firmer than the Genesis, if so God help them.

I love just about everything else about my Genesis and as I said, I'm waiting until I've tried it with the snow tires and smaller rims before I take it in to the dealer with any complaints about the ride. Given that there are very few Genesis in Canada so far, and all the positive reports about the ride, I'm not hopeful that I will get much out of the dealer on this issue.

 

[JOwest]

I notice this problem with my 4.6 as well. I don't think the suspension is soft at all. On the contrary I think it is too firm especially at the front end. When it hit a bump it feels like the suspension is not damping the motion at all. It transmit the whole impact to the seats. It appears more so in the front than the back seat.

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[VaiFan]

for me it's not too rough. but if I was to have my choice, I'd soften the initial compression damping a bit, and increase the rebound damping.
Then I'd go 1-2 mm bigger on the rear sway.
I think this would not only help the ride but the handling as well.

 

[JohnMartin]

I thought I was crazy after test driving the Genesis three times now.

I even brought two different people with me (one each on two separate occasions) to confirm that the ride in the Genesis was the one area that almost seemed at odds with what the magazine reviews have had to say about the ride.

Whereas the BMW 5 Series and the Merecedes E Series I test drove were firm but subtle, the Genesis seemed harsh by comparison, whether from the driver's sear or the passenger seat or in the rear.

The Infinity wasn't as harsh, either.

The only car that seemed as firm was the Lexus G Series, but even it wasn't as harsh as the Genesis' suspension.

I don't know if I'm explaining myself all that well, because suspension issues can be tricky to discuss or describe, but the ride in the Genesis that I drove (it was the same one) had a ride quality that was harsh, and I had thought there was a good chance that maybe it was just the particular car I drove (a V6 with the tech package).

I plan on test driving a V8 Genesis when my local dealer gets one to compare and contrast.

I am huge on ride quality, and I had one bad experience before buying a car that had very bad ride quality, and it was my fault for not extensively test driving it before buying it. That was not so enjoyable experience, to say the least, when you're stuck with a car you don't enjoy driving every day.

 

[Sal Collaziano]

Welcome aboard, JohnMartin. Thank you for signing up.

I think there's only ONE way to figure out what's going on with this issue.. Get two people together who own a Genesis - one that feels the suspension is soft - and another that feels the suspension is hard. Each take a ride in each car and discuss.........

Otherwise, we're just going to have opinions to go on... So does anyone live locally to another member in this discussion?

 

[jwaters943]

John,

This has been covered before, but did you check the tire pressure? This is a MUST. All cars are shipped w/ the tires overinflated and many dealers don't adjust the pressure (even though they should). This made a huge difference in my Genesis. On a scale of 1-10, I'd give the suspension an 8. Before I deflated the tires to their proper (cold) pressure, I'd give it a 6.

 

[gipp]

After nearly 1000 miles on my 4.6 Tech I have to agree that the ride is harsher than I would have expected. I believe the primary culprits are the Dunlop tires. When I put Dunlops on my Mecedes E class the ride harshness increased by several magnitudes. So much so that in my ride to and from work on day one of the Dunlops I went straight back to the tire dealer. He looked at me, smiled and said, "Way to harsh right?". I said yes. He explained that the actual construction method of the Dunlop tires differs than that of other "premium" tires and has historically not worked well with multilink suspensions. The primary reason being the structural strength of the sidewalls. The extremely low profile of these tires puts a premium on the ability of the tire to flex in the sidewall. He threw on a set of Toyos and the Mercedes was back to normal. Tires do make that much difference.

Again, I am comparing harshness to the ride on the Mercedes and the Lexus but I also have driven my inlaws Avalon enough to know that the Geneisis is actually harsher than that. Is it a big enough issue for me to go out and spend $1100 bucks on a "Grand Touring" performance tire of just a high performance tire vs ultra high performance tire from another manufacturer-no. But I think it is a classic example where Hyundai tried to save a few bucks and it has come back to bite them. The Bridestone Turanza Serenity for example is almost 75% more than the Dunlops and the Michelin Pilot HX MXM4 XP is about 80% more.

The second issue might actually be the seats themselves. I can really feel the subwoofer "harshness" in these seats. I am a big fan of bass and the Lexicon can pump it out but that should be a good thump vs. a harsh thump. The 4.6 handles the big bumps just fine. The damping seems fine, albiet not up to Mecedes standards. It is the road irregularities and textures that seem to be transmitted to the seat. BMW drivers will not notice this as much because when they feel these irregualrities in the steering wheel the accompanying seat/body issues seem to be in place and appropriate. The Genesis sterring is much more isolated than the BMW's and thus the unexpected harshness comes as a suprise.

 

[musher51]

I believe the primary culprits are the Dunlop tires.

I think you're on to something, Gipp. In my Bimmer days, the autumn ritual of replacing the summer performance tires with snow tires meant taking a big step backwards in ride, handling, etc. To my surprise, when I pulled the Dunlops and installed snow tires on my Genesis a couple of weeks ago, the ride IMPROVED! It was particularly noticeable the first few days, and then one gets "used to" the new reality and comparisons become harder to make (particularly given the inherent subjectivity of assessing a car's "ride").

But for now, I'm convinced that my car rides - and even handles - better with the Blizzaks on than it did with the Dunlops. The Dunlops are still sitting on the stock 18" wheels and I'll put 'em back on in the spring. But if I notice any sort of degradation in ride quality at that point, the Dunlops will be immediately replaced by a high quality summer tire.

 

[jwaters943]

I agree that tires make a huge difference. Sort of an apples to oranges comparison, but the ride of my GS430 was transformed by switching from Dunlop Runflat tires to non-runflat Yokohama Advans. Either way, I still think my Genesis rides better than the Lexus did w/ either tires. The GS & IS are simply not as smooth as the ES or LS.

I'm not trying to belittle anyone who thinks the suspension on the Genesis couldn't use a bit of fine tuning, but I would try checking your tire pressure or even getting different tires before being so quick to point the finger at the suspension itself.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

 

[thomaspf]

Interesting discussion, however it leaves me wondering

What are the quietest and best performing tires for a 4.6 Genesis?

Cheers

Thomas

 

[VaiFan]

I was just reading Automobile magazine and they were criticizing the BMW 135 for being harsh. Then they further went on to say the new Lexus IF is almost unbearable compared to the BMW.

I think the Genesis is good as is, but will be even better when I'm done with mine!

 

[rmwweb]

John,

This has been covered before, but did you check the tire pressure? This is a MUST. All cars are shipped w/ the tires overinflated and many dealers don't adjust the pressure (even though they should). This made a huge difference in my Genesis. On a scale of 1-10, I'd give the suspension an 8. Before I deflated the tires to their proper (cold) pressure, I'd give it a 6.

I for one have checked my tire pressure to ensure that it is properly set because to a degree that is what part of this whole issue is about. Even with the tire pressure properly set, it feels like they are over inflated by a huge amount. Every tar strip or expansion joint is transmitted to the car the way you would expect them to be if the tires were way overinflated.

I had two pressure gages and when I checked my tires the two gages differed by about 8 psi. To find out which one was correct I went over to see the mechanic that had worked on my previous car for several years. We used his Gage and both of mine on a couple of tires and then got out his very expensive Gage as well. To shorten the story it was clear that all but one of my gages were reading the same so I threw out the bad one and rechecked my (cold) tire pressure. It was properly set by the dealer before delivery.

RW
3.8 with Tech Package