what's the smoothest-riding, quietest car you've ridden in?

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my father drove a 1972 rolls royce silver shadow when i was a child like this.



it was the quietest and 2nd smoothest car i ever rode in.
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he traded it for a 1986 rolls royce in 1986
the 1986 rolls royce was nowhere near as smooth, and had none of the poise that the '72 one had.
it had improved handling which made it stiffer, but the '72 one could handle very well as long as you accelerated hard through tight bends to force the tail down and reduce body roll almost completely.
nervous drivers who do not trust the feel of the '72 one would not have the bravery to floor it through bends, but it certainly worked.
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the smoothest car (by far) that i ever rode in was a 1969 citroen ds. it was very gutless however.



when the owner backed it out of his driveway, i thought the tyres were almost flat because there was no sensation of being connected to the road. when he backed onto the road, he turned too sharply, and the left rear wheel dropped off the gutter while the right rear wheel just rolled normally out of the scoop of the driveway entry, and the car remained completely level. there was no sensation. i was astounded, and i asked the owner to do it again while i got out to see how the wheels behaved.

the rear left wheel dropped way down on it's own and the other wheels where pushed into the wheel arches (i know the rear has no arches but i can not be bothered to write a thousand words) to compensate.

the seats had no springs in them, and were made of just soft foam (which i would not think would last long if the car was used frequently), and that added to the feeling of comfort.

i have ridden in many cars, but the citroen of the model i showed was by far the smoothest.

i understand that people have driven citroens over raised railroad tracks at 60 miles per hour, with absolutely no sensation of anything out of the ordinary.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EkgwcLYVqE&feature=relmfu[/youtube]

Now this is a Cadiilac.

a caddy is NOT supposed to be that loud and rough-riding. it sounded and looked just like a corvette from the inside. a real caddy should float serenely over the bumps, and never disturb the passengers with anything but muted hints of what is outside the car. just my old-fogie opinion.

Grandmother's Audi, surprisingly enough.

Well, you have several options on that ride control:
-StabiliTrak Electronic Stability Control System, 4 driver selectable modes.
-Performance-Tuned Multi Mode MR Suspension.

She's stock with 556 horsepower, but they added that hi- performance exhaust to get it @ + 600 hp.

For 50 less hp you'd have a quiet ride until you got on it.

somehow i doubt that it would ride as well as anything else with good old-fashioned 70-series soft rubber, high-tech or not. where i live, that caddy would rattle itself to death over the frost-heaved and roughly rutted/pot-holed local roads, and short of the most uncomfortably stiff suspension setting would bottom-out on some wavy pavement, due to insufficient ground clearance. it needs at least 2 additional inches of ground clearance for such roads. my kind of luxury car would be able to smoothly and quietly drive such roads just as well as the glass-smooth stuff in that hot-rod caddy's natural upscale environs. i rode in an air-suspended lincoln towncar taxi that could handle the local rough stuff just fine, it felt like i was riding on a magic carpet.

Yeah, it weighs in @ 4200 lbs. I bet those Cadillacs pushed another +1000 pounds for one. And yes to that weight: I just looked it up and a '75 Cadillac is 5200lbs.

yes, there is just no economical substitute for bulk, in flattening out rough roads. those heavy old caddies were largely [a pun] unexcelled at the magic carpet trick, though a 70s-era large [but much less bulky] mercedes sedan was just as cushy plus they handled a lot better, due to the fact that a mercedes suspension by itself costs as much as entire lesser cars. now if that hotrod "corvettillac" had an [mercedes] S-550 suspension, that would be a real trick ride. nothing rides better over all roads, than an S-550 or a citroen with hydropneumatic suspension.

My mum's car gives a pretty smooth ride. She just got it last year.

what make/model, por favor?

nothing rides more smoothly than a greyhound bus.