Ride vs Handling - a debate

It seems, ride and handling is very hotly debated issue (as well as some other like FE (kitna deti hai  ) on the Forum.

Here is my two cents and I sincerely hope that with inputs from other members, it should help in better understanding of the issue.

Ride and Handling is two opposite poles of the same spectrum to a suspension designer.  It is like a sliding scale and every car has its own balancing point and focus.  Ride deals with comfort (less hard bounce, more annoying to older parents sitting in back seat or rear seat passengers in general)  during regular drive.  Handling deals with behavior of car while cornering or taking turn at higher speed than one is supposed to. For Indian auto market, most VFM cars are designed as Family Cars (more than one passenger traveling in car most of the time),  i.e.,  for ride than handling, hence so may complaint by amateurish car drivers.  When some one says car bottomed out on pothole or big puddle or speed breaker that simply means driver was driving at faster speed than what s/he should be (not a smart driver), if car was designed for ride -  Car will transfer hard bounce if it was designed for better a handling (stiff spring).  In either case car will feel unsettled to passengers and driver - not a sign of good driving.  Solution know your car and drive at appropriate speed.  BTW, do you believe that BMW 3 series is probably only 4 passenger car, all other H/Bs (including M800) is 5 passenger car???  I find it childish when some one complaints that Swift's rear legroom and boot is little because Swift is a VFM version of Ferrari - know the purpose of car before you buy it!  If you need MUV, don't buy Swift then complain.

Suspension design is more challenging in VFM cars (say, e.g., under 10- 20 Lakhs, that is VFM H/Bs and sedans) than luxury cars.  In luxury cars they can afford to embed a complex system integrated which can take care of both demands up to some extent, even adaptive and tunable systems are employed in some luxury cars. So what is the challenge?  Design a VFM suspension system with basic components which  best meets the daily requirement of targeted potential buyers, hence, different philosophy and objective, and different tuning of suspension system for VFM.  Most Indian roads are still more demanding than average road in developed world - to put it mildly  .

Anyone can drive fast (even over 200 kmph) by pressing gas pedal, but a smart and observant driver (observing road condition ahead) will make passenger feel that M800 is a better handling car than a BMW.  Respect speed limit to become smart driver.

Nice post Amar, especially the last para!

I agree with Rohit, the last Para must be shown to all new and old drivers alike for a better state of driving.

Every car's suspension system has its own DNA and we cannot expect both ride comfort as well as good handling and road grip from the same setup. A stiffer suspension will improve handling and high speed stability, whereas a softer setup will give good comfort, but reduce the planted feeling of the car on roads. Also, for our conditions, we cant even think of extremely comfortable nor extremely good handling setups, as our kind of roads do not permit it.