mmarshall

+1

mmarshall

Well, I don't have many arguments with you on the new Fusion. IMO, it is one of the best Ford products in quite a while, and I found it pleasant to drive (though I thought that the late Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego were also quite well-done). I wouldn't consider them, though, in the "Luxury" class by American standards.

I8ABMR

The ride on a car will never satisfy everyone at all times . This is why manufacturers are slowly moving to adaptive suspensions. This way we can have out cake and eat it too !!!

This is the only true solution to a very old issue. Best solution for far

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Years ago the ES offered an optional Comfort/Sport suspension on ES300s. Dunno why they stopped offering such a feature.

SW17LS

I can tell you from my experience with the AVS in the GS that the duality of the car is impressive. It rides great on normal, and gets much sportier and more firmly damped in Sport S+.

Lexus dropped the adaptive suspension in the ES because it was expensive and few people got it.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Similar to Dynamic Rear Steer on the GS being offered initially then taken away. However it's also somewhat because these are Luxury makers. People who buy their cars have $$$

SW17LS

Yeah but the ES is the entry level car, and they made the decision to go all comfort with the ES back when the IS came out. So they could have a suspension that was comfort biased.

The AVS wasn't all that uncommon in the 3ES, but it was pretty rare in the 4ES. I have never seen a 4ES with AVS personally, I have seen a few on the forum, mostly out west. So, I wasn't surprised when it was dropped on the 5ES.

natnut

Doesn't the latest generation GS F-Sport and Luxury as well as the LS have adaptive suspension (AVS)?

I8ABMR

yup !!!

SW17LS

The 4GS Luxury and F-Sport have AVS, as does the LS, standard in the F-Sport and Hybrid, optional on the regular.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

had begun to reply to this before, but lost the browser tab... so this might be a bit more brief

i disagree with your statement because car makers want to sell cars, not just appease the 'auto press'.

while you and many others appreciate the smooth riding nature of old-school large american sedans with big tires on small rims, the opposite is true too, that many, not just younger buyers, appreciate competent handling, which doesn't automatically mean harsh/stiff. the former though, don't necessarily also appreciate the rolling sailboat handling of those old barges.

so while i can understand and appreciate your distain for low profile tires and their harsh ride over bumps, newer sophisticated actively controlled electronic suspensions have changed the game.

ford almost went out of business, and along with it lincoln. an 80s town car was an abomination. i drove a bunch of 'em. THE least space efficient vehicle i was ever in. the trunk might be huge on paper, but it had massive wheel well and spare tire 'boxes' making the space pretty useless. from the inside, the hood looked like a pool table stuck out front. very little interior cubby space. it was really a joke.

here's that beauty.




sure, cruising down the road on the interstate was 'comfy', but then at some point you have to take a corner and just about get seasick.

a joke? it's selling quite well. it's VASTLY more space efficient AND safer than a DTS.

but back to the q50... apparently it can be had in different suspension configurations, with different modes and different steering, and different rim/tire packages. reviews are saying it's no bmw, but other than that, it seems like something for most people.

yowps3

Has Nissan improved the VQ37HR for the Q50? Or is it the exact same as how it was in the G37?

SW17LS

And thats just the thing, you don't need a boaty ride to have a comfortable ride nowadays. Look at BMW, the 5 and 7 have always been great riding cars despite being good handlers, look at the GS, look at the new Cadillacs. Look at the LS. Even before they started injecting some sport into the LS, it rode incredibly without being wallowy or boaty.

I'm somebody that prefers ride bias to sportiness, thats why I drove the ES for so long. But, even I love the way my GS rides. Its got that glasslike ride down the highway I loved about the LS, while being fun to drive when I want fun to drive.

Suspension technology has improved, tire technology has improved, wheel technology has improved to where you can have a car thats firm in corners with larger diameter wheels that still rides great.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

It's less raucous than it was in the G37, at least from my own experiences mainly because they isolated the cabin more and the VQ is more muted now. Similar to the IS350. So in a way it sounds more refined, but it's still powerful and quick with the 7-Speed

mmarshall

What you may be overlooking, though, is that many car-makers believe, rightly or wrongly, that the way to sell cars nowadays is to do just that...appease the guys in the auto press. That is because of the large (and growing) power that the press and auto-reviewers have in this age of 24/7 news and discussion. The people in real life, though, on the roads, who drive aggressively like those in the auto-press do, are a distinct minority.

Take our own CAR CHAT, for example. Look at how many comparo and review articles are copied and posted from auto-magazines. Each one (usually) produces dozens (and sometimes hundereds) of replies.

I myself can, and do, appreciate competent handling....I've had a few situations pop up where I've had to make a hard manuver to avoid an accident when some jerk pulls out right in front of me. That's not necessarily just a matter of age, but of safety and common sense. In my car reviews, I look for a good balance of ride and handling (in general, the Germans do it best), and I list it in the PLUSSES/MINUSES columns if I think the car is notable or deficient in one, another, or both. Some recent GM cars, with their German Opel-based platforms, also share in the generally good ride/handling compromise. While it can be argued, on one hand, that today's dense-traffic levels create more chances for potential collisions (and more need for good handling to avoid them), it can also be argued that the slower average speeds these dense traffic conditions force also lowers the need for high-performance handling/stability. I can see how one looks at it either way. But it is also true that with many older people who like the floaty-ride characteristics of (some) older America cars....they don't really need sharp handling because their reactions are too slow to really take advantage of it when needed. And, some of the driving-instructors at the Defensive-Driving course for those over 55 actually encouraged the sale of cars like the Crown Vic/Grand Marquis/Town Car because their big, heavy, full-frame chassis provided a good measure of safety in a crash.......some older drivers were in these cars on the advice of their Instructors.

Eh.......somewhat. While Magna-Ride and other adaptive/active suspensions do, in fact, make some compromises possible, there is still a difference between smooth and S-M-O-O-T-H. Today's Buick LaCrosse and Chevy Impala are smooth. The new 1969 Lincoln Continental I can remember my dad bringing home (at the time, he worked for the old Philco-Ford company, and would bring home big company Fords and Mercurys, and even the Company VP Lincoln, and would toss me the keys to try them out because he knew I was sensible, a good teen-age driver, and wouldn't abuse or wreck them)...now that Continental was SMOOTH. Driving it was like riding in a battleship with half of its weight in sound-insulation. It made even the last Town Car produced feel like a VW Beetle in comparison.

Of course, to be honest, that 1969 Lincoln could barely steer around a football stadium...today's new Impala and LaCrosse, even with their (comparatively) smooth rides, would easily handle circles around it.


Well, bit.....no arguments there. We can both agree that Detroit made some of its worst junk in the 1980s. That was whan I myself had had enough of their poor quality, and switched to Japanese makes (my first Japanese-brand car was a Mazda GLC).