Does Air Suspension Make a Difference?

[Bradders278]

Title should read.... does air suspension make THE difference I'm looking for in this scenario?

I currently have an Audi A4 (B9) 3.0 TDI Quattro Avant - seemingly the perfect car for me. Big but not too big, fast but comfy, understated, great motorway range. I can do Edinburgh and back (just over 600 miles round trip from East Staffordshire) with 4 of us in the car and the boot absolutely full on one tank, and the passengers actively say how comfy they are and how good the ride is. I think the ZF8 speed and effortless torque of the 3.0 TDI really help with just wafting along.

Anyway. With the state of the roads, I am getting more and more occasions where you come across not just a pot hole, but what is basically a missing road surface. It could be 20-30 pothole individual repairs on the inside of a B-road corner, the whole car shakes and you grit your teeth. Or often now a junction that has just eroded to nothing-ness.

Considering the next move to be something on air suspension. Could be anything from an A6 All Road, all the way up to X5, Defender, Discovery etc. If Defender/Discovery, I do note purely from looking at cars out and about there is a massive difference in wheel sizes available. Some small wheels with suitably 'chunky' looking tyres and others basically running tarmac rally car spec large wheels / skinny tyres. BMW X5 / Audi Q7 seemingly none of them seem to run a small wheel / large sidewall combination.

So herein lies the question - do any of the above variants, when running on air vs coil spring suspension, go anyway towards absorbing or smoothing out some of our horrendous road surfaces?

I'm not sure I'm ready to give up a mildly warm estate yet, but also thinking I might have to soon!

Thanks,
Scott.

[SWoll]

Air suspension makes a significant difference IME, especially when it's adjustable and combined with the increased ride height of an SUV.

We've run 45R21 and 40R22 tyres on our etrons (2500KG cars) and in comfort/all road modes the ride is excellent, and can be dropped substantially (3 inches) in dynamic mode if pressing on. Even then it rides very well.

I wouldn't want a daily without it these days, especially with how bad UK roads are and how large wheels have gotten in order to keep up with the growing size of the average car.

[LRDefender]

My last car was equipped with air suspension and I was very impressed. On rough tarmac, farm lanes, potholed roads and off road the air suspension worked well. I understand that if air suspension fails it can be very expensive to repair or replace, my car was brand new at purchase so was covered by the manufacturers warranty for 3 years.

[napistonheads]

I had an X5 on 21” runflats with air suspension which was good but the low profile tyres (315 35 R21 rear, 275 40 R21 front) still transmitted broken tarmac into the cabin in a way the SQ5 I had without air suspension but 20” higher profile non runflat tyres didn’t. I recently drove the new iX3 on standard suspension and I’d say it was as good if not better than the X5 although i didn’t check if it was on runflats but BMW usually are except M cars. Tyre sidewall make a huge difference to ride comfort as seemingly do runflat tyres. Also as mentioned above I hear (but haven’t experienced) air suspension can get expensive to repair if it fails. Personally if ride comfort is the primary concern I’d take normal suspension, higher sidewall, non runflat tyres.

[Jte3397]

I have it on a Disco 3 and it's great. I will say that 19" wheels and fat sidewalls help more with poor road quality.

[AmyRichardson]

Jte3397 said:

I have it on a Disco 3 and it's great. I will say that 19" wheels and fat sidewalls help more with poor road quality.

Air and deep profile tires certainly seem to serve different parts of the ride quality equation. I had an Airmatic CLS ON 40-profile tires and occasionally cross-drove it vs. my father's E-Class (on cabby-spec bubble tires). The air was really good over undulating and grainy surfaces but not too clever for severe/abrupt bumps - over which big sidewalls are king.

An additional bonus was high-speed stability; a really ride-focused car on steel springs/sidewalls can be an eye-popper if you hit an expansion gap at autobahn speeds, whereas air (presumably because it drops and hardens at higher speeds) was rock solid.

[HocusPocus]

Yes.

Have run a couple of MB e class estates with upgrade to full air suspension, but unfashionably without enormous wheel/skinny tyre combos. Great for cross continental runs. Can raise suspension to tackle rutted tracks or tighten it up for extra body control when fully loaded on fast roads.

[DRE7]

We ve got a 535i touring on big wheels and skinny tyres with air, and a Volvo ex30 with chunky sidewall and springs. The Volvo wins in town hands down, but the BMW is much better at speed and A road driving.
If I was city based all the time I d go for sidewall over air.
ETA - they’re the same weight believe it or not!

[Longy00000]

I would go air everytime if you can. Also avoid run flats, they are horrible and will ruin any suspension set up whether springs or air.
Personally I hate run flats and will try to avoid as much as possible.

[119]

Never been in a car with run flats but I seem to remember when they started becoming the norm on new cars, people were complaining of the ride and swapped for non run flats and apparently improved the ride a fair bit.

Air suspension on top would be lovely.

[lornemalvo]

More than one motoring journalist said that the A6 Allroad was the most comfortable accessible car available, I regret not buying one before they were pulled from the UK market. Like you, I am actively seeking a car that will soak up the terrible roads in my area. One good review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jUMNbTuKZQ

[119]

Would love an A6 all road but they are just a bit too big for us!

Out of interest, do all the All-Roads have air/dcc?

[lornemalvo]

119 said:

Would love an A6 all road but they are just a bit too big for us!

Out of interest, do all the All-Roads have air/dcc?

I think for me too, really. The new one coming out this year is over 100mm wider so that's probably out

[Nickp82]

119 said:

Would love an A6 all road but they are just a bit too big for us!

Out of interest, do all the All-Roads have air/dcc?

I believe they do . I have a 2015 A6 Allroad and it does ride along very nicely.

[Kawasicki]

The B9 Allroad is more comfortable that what you have… if you get the adaptive damper option.

[gangzoom]

Air suspension is great till it needs fixing, to be fair the car has done 100k and is 9 years old, but was off the road for 3 weeks as I was finding an independent who could fix it rather than pay main dealer prices - Plus hassel of getting AA to recover the car to the garage.

I'm glad the new car I've ordered doesn't have any active/air suspension or 4 wheel steering.

[cerb4.5lee]

It makes a massive difference in my view, and I wouldn't buy any SUV without it now. I've experienced air suspension in the 2004 X5 4.8iS/2022 GLE400d, and the current 2024 X5 40d for example.

The old X5 was on 20" wheels, whereas the more recent cars were both on 22" wheels for reference.

[Rowe]

I would take air over none air every time.
It's better in every single way.

[CrgT16]

I think it depends on tyre/wheel size combo.

De dent sidewalls with well balanced conventional setup is comfortable enough. Air is preferred for bigger wheel sizes. On my i5 with big wheels the air works well.

[119]

We had a 2011 V70 moons ago with 17" wheels and the standard ride on that was very good, but not sure how it would cope with todays roads.

Although i think the armchairs they used for seats probably helped a bit.