Comfortable ride quality is must

[shane]

I want to buy a car in the near future. I have short listed Honda City 1.5 S AT which has been launched in Sep 2008. Be~1iuse of a back problem of my spouse AT & a very good suspension system become preferred features. Please advise about the ride comfort and the suspension system of this car. Please also advise if there are other equally good/better models in this or slightly higher price range.

[watson]

The problem while giving you advise on the ride quality is that the quality of roads varies immensely in India, from city to city. Thus a kind of suspension setup that works brilliantly 011 some roads may not work as well on others. Then to be able to give more accurate advice I will also need to know how many people will be using the car along with your spouse - is there usually one person in the car or two or is the car full of people. These aspects become important because we want a suspension system and setup that is at its best under very particular load conditions. Suspension is designed and setup to be good over a wide range but work best under a very narrow range. And this range varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Also, two cars can have exactly the same suspension but if it setup differently, then will provide totally different ride quality. To make a generalisation, Japanese cars are good for good roads while European cars are good for a wider variety of roads.