Increasing ride comfort of Formentor

[iberks]

Hi all,

I own a Formentor V2 1.5 TSI DSG with no DCC in the UK for 8 months already, absolutely love it. I passed from Merc C class. Since Formentor's has a great handling, car feels me a bit stiff and firm especially after the C class. Motorway rides are absolutely fine but I cannot find the comfort at all in the city rides. Yes, London roads are awful unfortunately.
My aim is improving the ride comfort by chaning some suspension elements. I recently talked to a garage nearby and they suggested me to change both coil overs and dampers. Wondering should I really need to change the dampers? Would coil over replacement with a softer ones can improve the ride quality and comfort all alone? If yes, which brand and model would you folks suggest me?

Thanks!

 

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

We can install DCC

 

[tzuicomicina]

But how does the softest DCC setting compare to the standard non DCC suspension?

 

[iberks]

We can install DCC

Presumably they would cost few grands?

 

[H Rafiq]

My Leon Cupra 280 has DCC. It’s not comfortable. Getting it deleted n putting coilovers on, but that’s just cuz they’re expensive to replace, and break too often!

 

[iberks]

My Leon Cupra 280 has DCC. It’s not comfortable. Getting it deleted n putting coilovers on, but that’s just cuz they’re expensive to replace, and break too often!

Need to find the easiest and cheapest way. I’m not after DCC either at least for car with pcp.

 

[iberks]

But how does the softest DCC setting compare to the standard non DCC suspension?

Afaik no dcc equals to comfort driving mode on dcc which is 4th stiffness option out of 10.

 

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

My Leon Cupra 280 has DCC. It’s not comfortable. Getting it deleted n putting coilovers on, but that’s just cuz they’re expensive to replace, and break too often!

DCC on the Formentor thankfully has a much much wider range of comfort - uncomfort

 

[SRGTD]

@iberks; wheel size and tyre brand can be a significant factor impacting ride comfort / ride compliancy. What size alloys do you have on your car and what brand of tyres do you have?

My current car came with low profile Bridgestone Turanza tyres when new (215/40 R18) on 18” alloys and IMHO the ride was quite firm but acceptable to me:- most of the cars I’ve owned over the past 40 years or so have been warm / hot hatches with a firm riding suspension and large wheels / low profile tyres so I’m used to firm riding cars. However, I bought a new set of alloys shortly after getting my current car and used that as an opportunity to get what I considered to be some better tyres - a set of Michelin PS4, and IMHO the Michelins do provide a more compliant ride than Bridgestone’s Turanzas (in my opinion they’re also better in most other respects too - e.g. cornering, braking, wet / dry weather grip).

I appreciate that ride comfort can be quite subjective, but changing tyres might be a more cost effective option than making suspension changes. You can also advertise your part worn tyres for sale on sites such as eBay to recoup some of the financial outlay on new tyres.

Bear in mind that if you do change your suspension from the factory set up, it would be a modification for insurance purposes, so you’d need to inform your insurance company who may increase your premium.

My previous VW had an early form of adaptive suspension - two settings; Normal and Sport. The Normal setting was more compliant and less firm than the standard suspension set up of the equivalent car without adaptive suspension. The Sport setting was too firm even for me with my history of firm riding cars - it would almost shake the fillings out of your teeth! .

 

[iberks]

@iberks; wheel size and tyre brand can be a significant factor impacting ride comfort / ride compliancy. What size alloys do you have on your car and what brand of tyres do you have?

My current car came with low profile Bridgestone Turanza tyres when new (215/40 R18) on 18” alloys and IMHO the ride was quite firm but acceptable to me:- most of the cars I’ve owned over the past 40 years or so have been warm / hot hatches with a firm riding suspension and large wheels / low profile tyres so I’m used to firm riding cars. However, I bought a new set of alloys shortly after getting my current car and used that as an opportunity to get what I considered to be some better tyres - a set of Michelin PS4, and IMHO the Michelins do provide a more compliant ride than Bridgestone’s Turanzas (in my opinion they’re also better in most other respects too - e.g. cornering, braking, wet / dry weather grip).

I appreciate that ride comfort can be quite subjective, but changing tyres might be a more cost effective option than making suspension changes. You can also advertise your part worn tyres for sale on sites such as eBay to recoup some of the financial outlay on new tyres.

Bear in mind that if you do change your suspension from the factory set up, it would be a modification for insurance purposes, so you’d need to inform your insurance company who may increase your premium.

My previous VW had an early form of adaptive suspension - two settings; Normal and Sport. The Normal setting was more compliant and less firm than the standard suspension set up of the equivalent car without adaptive suspension. The Sport setting was too firm even for me with my history of firm riding cars - it would almost shake the fillings out of your teeth! .

Would it increase the premiums really? I thought its a straight forward upgrade as long as nothing done with the engine, premiums would be the same. My car came with P Zero's and 19" alloys. I agree tyres are important but I also I believe unless I go to higher profile i.e 45 instead of 40, comfort increase will be almost minimum due to my previous experiences.
If suspension upgrades would affect the premiums then I might stay with the OEM's.
Thanks for the heads up!

 

[SRGTD]

Would it increase the premiums really? I thought its a straight forward upgrade as long as nothing done with the engine, premiums would be the same. My car came with P Zero's and 19" alloys. I agree tyres are important but I also I believe unless I go to higher profile i.e 45 instead of 40, comfort increase will be almost minimum due to my previous experiences.
If suspension upgrades would affect the premiums then I might stay with the OEM's.
Thanks for the heads up!

Not necessarily, but it might - depends how mod-friendly your insurance company is.

I‘ve changed alloys on a previous car to an alternative OEM set that were exactly the same size / spec as the originals and specifically designed for the car. I notified my insurance company as strictly speaking it was a modification and there was a clause in the policy to notify any changes to the car from how it left the factory when new (or words to that effect).The insurance company increased my annual premium by something like £15-£20, with a pro-rata charge for the remainder of the period of cover . Some might say there was no need to notify the change. However;

• IMHO it depends on what the insurance company considers to be a modification - each insurance company is free to apply their own approach, and as said, some will be more mod-friendly than others.
• I didn’t want to give the insurance company a reason to decline a claim or void my policy for failure to notify a modification, with them pointing to the small print in the policy.

Edit; sorry, didn’t respond on you point re. premiums staying the same as long as nothing is done to the engine. Non-performance enhancing modifications can an also potentially affect premiums; e.g. suspension modifications can affect a car’s handling characteristics - from an insurance underwriter’s perspective that might make it a better or worse insurance risk, depending on whether the modifications make the car handle better or worse. Similarly, cosmetic modifications can alter the insurance risk and the premium; vinyl wrapping a car or fitting a body kit makes the car more expensive to repair, or fitting an expensive set of alloy wheels might make the car more attractive to would-be thieves and increase the risk of it (or the wheels) being stolen.

So, non-engine modifications can affect the insurance risk and the premium that the insurance company requires to cover the risk, hence why insurance companies have a condition in their policies requiring the policyholder to inform them of any modifications - engine related or otherwise.

 

[DAN@ADRIAN FLUX]

Hi.
If you have any issues with insurance at all for any modifications then please feel free to drop me a line.
Regards,
Dan.

 

[pkaps]

DCC has a great range of adjustment, 15 of them, it even has a super soft, but yes since we are on 19 inch/40 you cannnot expect miracles. This s a sport car and suspension has to be firm no matter what. Coilovers could be a solution, will not be less firm but will be more absorbant as they dont bottom out and the firmness does not transfer as much in to the chassis. But has to be a good coilover, not a budget one.Having a Bilstein and a KW in my 2 Corrados, the KW is a better one, more refined.