Car suspension tuning.

[Jcloughie]

I am a member of a Mazda CX-5 forum. Mostly American based. A new UK member recently asked for advice regarding What he thinks is a harsh ride. Otherwise he is very happy.

He has advice to say change his 19 inch rims to 17 inch. While I see the logic. My car has 19 inch and rides fine. I offered him a trial if he is in my area, but so far he has not returned to the thread.

As part of the discussion I mentioned that Mazda MAY tune the suspension differently for different countries. A member from California has really reacted to this telling me I should not make such statement without empirical evidence. (It was only a suggestion).

I Googled it, and Google AI supports my suggestion, both in general and with regards to Mazda.

It makes sense to me, that manufactures tune to the country of sale to suit their driving style and expectations. But It would be nice to have more definitive evidence.

Does anyone know.

John

 

[RogerL]

I am a member of a Mazda CX-5 forum. Mostly American based. A new UK member recently asked for advice regarding What he thinks is a harsh ride. Otherwise he is very happy.

He has advice to say change his 19 inch rims to 17 inch. While I see the logic. My car has 19 inch and rides fine. I offered him a trial if he is in my area, but so far he has not returned to the thread.

As part of the discussion I mentioned that Mazda MAY tune the suspension differently for different countries. A member from California has really reacted to this telling me I should not make such statement without empirical evidence. (It was only a suggestion).

I Googled it, and Google AI supports my suggestion, both in general and with regards to Mazda.

It makes sense to me, that manufactures tune to the country of sale to suit their driving style and expectations. But It would be nice to have more definitive evidence.

Does anyone know.

John

It's quite normal for different country markets to "need" different suspension tuning.

I recall that the Ford Escort mk1 had 4 different suspensions for the regular "L" version - one each for Germany, UK, France and Italy with other European countries adopting one of those. I thing the GT versions just used the Italian set-up.

I complained a lot to my dealer about my 2000 Vauxhall Astra's suspension and they fitted a German specification set of springs and dampers. I also recall that when GM first introduced the Opel/Vauxhall Mokka to Europe they used the same settings as the equivalent car in Korea and attracted criticism from the motoring press here. I was also made aware that long after Vauxhall had handed over engineering to Opel, they retained a small team of engineers here to tune the suspensions.

I can't answer your question about Mazda but I'd expect them to use various different settings around the world.

 

[otherclive]

It's quite normal for different country markets to "need" different suspension tuning.

I recall that the Ford Escort mk1 had 4 different suspensions for the regular "L" version - one each for Germany, UK, France and Italy with other European countries adopting one of those. I thing the GT versions just used the Italian set-up.

I complained a lot to my dealer about my 2000 Vauxhall Astra's suspension and they fitted a German specification set of springs and dampers. I also recall that when GM first introduced the Opel/Vauxhall Mokka to Europe they used the same settings as the equivalent car in Korea and attracted criticism from the motoring press here. I was also made aware that long after Vauxhall had handed over engineering to Opel, they retained a small team of engineers here to tune the suspensions.

I can't answer your question about Mazda but I'd expect them to use various different settings around the world.

I had heard that too wrt Vauxhall/GM doing extensive testing in UK to get their cars “tuned” for UK roads.

 

[otherclive]

I am a member of a Mazda CX-5 forum. Mostly American based. A new UK member recently asked for advice regarding What he thinks is a harsh ride. Otherwise he is very happy.

He has advice to say change his 19 inch rims to 17 inch. While I see the logic. My car has 19 inch and rides fine. I offered him a trial if he is in my area, but so far he has not returned to the thread.

As part of the discussion I mentioned that Mazda MAY tune the suspension differently for different countries. A member from California has really reacted to this telling me I should not make such statement without empirical evidence. (It was only a suggestion).

I Googled it, and Google AI supports my suggestion, both in general and with regards to Mazda.

It makes sense to me, that manufactures tune to the country of sale to suit their driving style and expectations. But It would be nice to have more definitive evidence.

Does anyone know.

John

Perhaps this might put the unbeliever back in his box. Slightly dated but I see no reason why Mazda haven’t continued to tune their cars to the market where required.
Mazda caught a cold recently in introducing the CX60 to Australia and it was heavily criticised for its poor suspension and ride. They have a recall for a significant change to be fitted. Clearly Mazda did not address the markets needs for that model.

Mazda ride and handling : Korean level of localised tuning not required

Mazda Australia doesn’t need the same level of localised suspension and steering tuning as it Korean competitors since it doesn’t suffer the same "perceived" ride and handling issues, the company’s boss says.

www.drive.com.au