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Technical Topics Suspension / Chassis / Brakes Suspension debate - adaptive or not?

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      05-15-2019, 09:55 AM   #23
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So Adaptive is just to learn and adjust comfortness between sport and comfort of the M Sport suspension? Does it add more stiffness than the Sport Mode in the M Sport suspension? Thanks.
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      05-15-2019, 10:24 AM   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Prissy View Post
So Adaptive is just to learn and adjust comfortness between sport and comfort of the M Sport suspension? Does it add more stiffness than the Sport Mode in the M Sport suspension? Thanks.
Someone just asked that on the previous page.

Ultimately I think you should aim to test drive both so you can make the right decision for you.
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      05-15-2019, 10:44 AM   #25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Prissy View Post
So Adaptive is just to learn and adjust comfortness between sport and comfort of the M Sport suspension? Does it add more stiffness than the Sport Mode in the M Sport suspension? Thanks.
The regular M suspension - does not change between comfort and sport modes. It is passive so to speak. If you have regular M suspension - you only changing steering effort, throttle response and transmission shift speed with comfort and sport mode.

The regular M suspension is in between comfort and sport settings of Adaptive suspension in stiffness feel - that's the consensus.

If you get Adaptive suspension ($700 option) - you will have different damper settings from comfort to sport. But you do forgo the suspension tuning and lift dampers much spoken about by BMW engineers. But gain flexibility and adaptive dampers.

So the debate is - which gives you more performance?
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      05-15-2019, 10:49 AM   #26
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Another interesting point for this debate is - how much flexibility one really needs. All the buttons and modes included in modern cars make it tunable but not very user friendly and convenient.

Just give us sport BMW steering feel - no buttons
Sport suspension - no modes.
Proper brakes - no adjustments. (yep new M8 now has adjustable brake feel - go figure)

For me if i have these adjustments - i tend leave the car in one setting - usually comfort and do not bother/forget to change - so next time you fly into the ramp - you go oh sh... - where is the steering feel and why am i leaning so much. To change it on the fly all the time - is very inconvenient.
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      05-15-2019, 02:57 PM   #27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ilyam5 View Post
Another interesting point for this debate is - how much flexibility one really needs. All the buttons and modes included in modern cars make it tunable but not very user friendly and convenient.

Just give us sport BMW steering feel - no buttons
Sport suspension - no modes.
Proper brakes - no adjustments. (yep new M8 now has adjustable brake feel - go figure)

For me if i have these adjustments - i tend leave the car in one setting - usually comfort and do not bother/forget to change - so next time you fly into the ramp - you go oh sh... - where is the steering feel and why am i leaning so much. To change it on the fly all the time - is very inconvenient.
I totally agree. I always find myself putting my F30 into sport mode to get my sport suspension (currently have adaptive). I'm looking forward to the majority of the car settings defaulting to sport on my G20, since I'm not opting for adaptive.
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      05-15-2019, 05:23 PM   #28
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ilyam5 View Post
Another interesting point for this debate is - how much flexibility one really needs. All the buttons and modes included in modern cars make it tunable but not very user friendly and convenient.
I see it the opposite way, what could be more user friendly, than having options and choices?

The option to do the equivalent of "delete sport suspension" on the fly, while driving on poor roads, or when carrying passengers, is so convenient.
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      05-16-2019, 06:23 AM   #29
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ilyam5 View Post
Another interesting point for this debate is - how much flexibility one really needs. All the buttons and modes included in modern cars make it tunable but not very user friendly and convenient.

Just give us sport BMW steering feel - no buttons
Sport suspension - no modes.
Proper brakes - no adjustments. (yep new M8 now has adjustable brake feel - go figure)

For me if i have these adjustments - i tend leave the car in one setting - usually comfort and do not bother/forget to change - so next time you fly into the ramp - you go oh sh... - where is the steering feel and why am i leaning so much. To change it on the fly all the time - is very inconvenient.
I think about where I'll be driving when I get into the car, and select the appropriate mode before embarking on my drive. Then I just leave it there for the entire drive. I rarely switch back and forth. Generally, I put it in sport mode right after starting the car, unless I know I'll be in bumper to bumper traffic for most of my trip. If I was in traffic, but I m about to drive on some open roads, I'll go to sport or sport+, but rarely do I go from sport back to comfort. If the f3* offered passive sport suspension with xdrive I would have been perfectly satisfied with that over the adaptive. As it was though, adaptive msport was the only way to get acceptably stiff suspension with xdrive cars.

I don't mind the adaptive suspension either though. It offers acceptably stiff suspension in sport or sport+, and it only requires half a second to hit the drive mode switch after starting the car. If one cares about driving dynamics it becomes habit like adjusting the climate control or turning on the music or whatever.
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      06-17-2019, 08:55 PM   #30
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ilyam5 View Post
Another interesting point for this debate is - how much flexibility one really needs. All the buttons and modes included in modern cars make it tunable but not very user friendly and convenient.

Just give us sport BMW steering feel - no buttons
Sport suspension - no modes.
Proper brakes - no adjustments. (yep new M8 now has adjustable brake feel - go figure)

For me if i have these adjustments - i tend leave the car in one setting - usually comfort and do not bother/forget to change - so next time you fly into the ramp - you go oh sh... - where is the steering feel and why am i leaning so much. To change it on the fly all the time - is very inconvenient.
The standard M-Sport car is for people like you.

If you bought Adaptive M, you bought the wrong car.

So that's your mistake, not BMW's.
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      06-17-2019, 10:20 PM   #31
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I'm going for it with my order - presently have the basic sport suspension on my 340 MSport - but I'm going to give adaptive a shot and I'm looking forward to it
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      06-18-2019, 06:39 AM   #32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by itsglen View Post
I'm going for it with my order - presently have the basic sport suspension on my 340 MSport - but I'm going to give adaptive a shot and I'm looking forward to it
You can't go wrong, from my opinion and experience, having driven the G20 330 with Adaptive Suspension for a few weeks, on normal every day road driving, I put it on adaptive most of the time. It feels that adaptive is levels off the road bumps more so than comfort, but still has a slight level of firmness.

Sport is sport stiff all around: steering, suspension, transmission and engine, for situations where road conditions allows more spirited drive.

Personally for me: For traffic bumper to bumper: ECO mode, normal driving: Adaptive mode, Minimal traffic, open road and more spirited drive: Sport mode. For the M340is you guys also have Sport+... big smiles!!

Best way is to test drive the car with the M-Adaptive suspension and feel it. Everyone's opinion is subjective.

Last edited by WXdrivefun; 06-18-2019 at 09:41 PM..
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      06-19-2019, 12:38 PM   #33
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I have passive MSport suspension on my 540i MSport, and it's pretty much perfect for me. But on M340i, I would opt for adaptive since the passive MSport suspension is stiffer than the one on 5 series. And also, customization ability is a good thing.
By the way, I don't understand reviewers and forum members complaining about "too much customization". You don't have to adjust anything. It's not like car doesn't work if you don't change the settings. And steering & suspension & throttle settings never effect any other UX flow, in other words, they don't take away from the user experience of any other function of the car.
"M5 is so complicated, you can't just sit and drive. You have to fiddle with settings for hours" I heard this falsehood a million times. In reality, you can just turn on the engine, put the gear in 'D' and go.
M8 has adjustable break. That's amazing. You don't need that very sharp 'bite' in city or highway, when you're driving in comfort mode. But on track or on back roads, you might enjoy firmer breaking. Why on earth that would be a bad thing?
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Last edited by Cortexiphan; 06-19-2019 at 12:47 PM..
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      06-19-2019, 07:31 PM   #34
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The problem is - all those choices are not improving the performance of the car. They are given and developed to address the complaints that the car is too aggressive and sporty - so they give us multiple settings to soften it to justify "soccer moms" complaints. e46 M3 had none of that.
i'm still voting for one setting - the good one. that is the real M car
- proper steering feel
- proper brake feel
- proper suspension feel

If its too much - buy a softer car - M performance - if even that is too much - go for M sport m-package - if that is too stiff-
buy x line or regular model. BMW certainly has choices in model line up. No reason to make M5 feel as soft as the regular 530e.
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      06-19-2019, 08:08 PM   #35
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ilyam5 View Post
The problem is - all those choices are not improving the performance of the car. They are given and developed to address the complaints that the car is too aggressive and sporty - so they give us multiple settings to soften it to justify "soccer moms" complaints. e46 M3 had none of that.
i'm still voting for one setting - the good one. that is the real M car
- proper steering feel
- proper brake feel
- proper suspension feel

If its too much - buy a softer car - M performance - if even that is too much - go for M sport m-package - if that is too stiff-
buy x line or regular model. BMW certainly has choices in model line up. No reason to make M5 feel as soft as the regular 530e.
There are plenty of people who like the idea of driving an m5 or whatever, but don't necessarily want a real sports sedan in practice. They enjoy the legacy and image associated with the M products but aren't willing to accept much, if any compromise in comfort.

Unfortunately, when good product lines gain attention, it attracts the masses. When the masses take notice, the product becomes diluted in an effort to please everyone.

At least the technology exists, that allows one to adjust the car to his/her preferences. It just requires a little upfront time pushing buttons and switches.
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      06-22-2019, 02:55 PM   #36
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Can adaptive suspension be retrofitted in th UK?
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      06-22-2019, 03:14 PM   #37
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Quote:
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Can adaptive suspension be retrofitted in th UK?
Nope. BMW themselves said that it can not be retrofitted and even for the F30, people asked the same thing.
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      06-22-2019, 07:36 PM   #38
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While adaptive M suspension was pretty much required for the F3X to make it tolerable to drive like a BMW, the suspension on the G20 is greatly improved but I would still get it. I almost always drive in sport but when I'm in the city or on roads that are trash, throwing the car in eco pro/comfort makes the drive more tolerable instead of having the suspension and car crash over bad surfaces.
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      06-22-2019, 11:01 PM   #39
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I drove the M340 yesterday with the standard suspension and it'd the only choice I would make. It's most balanced suspension I have driven since the E90 generation, extremely well composed, with very flat handling. I don't love the car overall but in this area they did a great job and is a huge improvement over the F30 with adaptive and Msport 704 suspension.
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      06-23-2019, 12:30 PM   #40
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FknLeon View Post
Nope. BMW themselves said that it can not be retrofitted and even for the F30, people asked the same thing.
Yep, I just checked with my local bmw dealer and they said the same
I don't see why
Any after market suggestions to give a more tolerable ride at low speeds?
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      06-25-2019, 12:37 PM   #41
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nik14 View Post
I test drove the m-sport once. I was pretty much decided on getting m sport. I asked the CA to take me to some windy roads ( there are some in the area), but he could not not find them and instead we ended up primarily on pretty bumpy roads looking for the smooth windy roads. In any event, the ride was very jarring, and based on that I went for the sport line. I even did another test drive of the sportline where I just sought bumpy roads and it handled then fine.
You may have just helped my decision between sport line or M-sport. I drive an M4, which I love, but am ready for a more comfortable car. I've been concerned about the M-sport suspension since I live with sh*t roads.
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      06-30-2019, 05:49 PM   #42
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Has anyone who was less satisfied with the non adaptive m sport suspension found that changing their wheels to non run flats helped with the crashy ride at low speeds?
I'm actively looking into changing my 19" RFTs, just wondering if its worth it given the low 35 tyre profile

Last edited by ballisma; 06-30-2019 at 06:58 PM..
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      06-30-2019, 08:09 PM   #43
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I have a '20 m340 with passive suspension on staggered 19s. I drive daily on shitty Boston area roads and I think it is brilliant. The car is nimble but extremely smooth.
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      07-01-2019, 07:08 AM   #44
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ordered my 330e with adaptive suspension as it comes part of M sport Plus in UK
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