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How to Evaluate the Comfort of a Car

Dec 19, 2022      View: 317

I believe that everyone often talks about one word when choosing a car and buying a car, and that is comfort. But how to judge whether a car is really comfortable?

 

In fact, to determine whether a car is comfortable or not, we should start from six aspects, seats, suspension, wheels/tyres, power system (engine and gearbox), interior space, and mute effect. Let's talk about these six aspects below.

 

1. Seat

 

As the most direct contact with the user, it is also the part with the longest contact time and the widest contact area. The comfort of the seat directly affects the user's driving experience. Therefore, the seat is put in the first point of discussion.

 

So how to evaluate the comfort of the seat? Mainly look at three points:

 

One is the thickness and softness of the seat; the other is the length of the seat. If the seat length is too short, it will affect the long-distance ride; the third is the wrapping of the seat. A seat with good wrapping has a stronger Supportive, reducing body shaking.

 

seat

In addition, there are still many seats that provide ventilation/heating, and even massage functions.

 

2. Suspension

 

It should be noted that due to the different positioning of the models, different types of models have different suspension adjustment methods. Among them, the suspension of the model focusing on sports is relatively harder; while the suspension of the model focusing on comfort is soft. Of course, from the point of view of comfort, a softer suspension is conducive to absorbing more vibrations and bringing a smoother ride.

 

suspension

From the perspective of the suspension form, some models adopt the rear torsion beam non-independent suspension. When the wheels on both sides of the rear axle are under different forces, it will cause certain interference to the opposite wheels, causing the vibration to be transmitted to the interior of the cockpit. For example, when a wheel on one side passes a speed bump, the passengers on the other side also feel the bumps. For models with a more advanced rear multi-link independent suspension, this situation can be avoided. In addition, some more advanced models are often equipped with air suspension, which significantly improves comfort.

 

3. Wheels/tyres

 

Tires are the only place where the whole vehicle has direct contact with the ground. Therefore, the special effects of tires directly affect the comfort of the vehicle. The comfortable silent tires will be more comfortable in terms of tread pattern shape and material selection, and a series of sound-absorbing chambers will be added to the tread to reduce road noise.

 

wheels

 

In addition, the size and width of the tire will also affect the comfort of the vehicle to a certain extent. Therefore, for car owners who pursue comfort, they can independently choose a set of quiet and comfortable tires.

 

4. Power system (engine and gearbox)

 

Generally speaking, the impact of the power system on comfort is divided into two parts, the engine and the gearbox.

 

For the engine part, generally speaking, an engine with more cylinders will have less vibration, and the vibration and noise transmitted to the car will also be smaller. However, due to its innate structure, the three-cylinder engine causes serious vibration. It is necessary to add a balance shaft or adopt an eccentric flywheel to offset the vibration, and at the same time, more costs must be invested in the engine mount.

 

engine

 

In addition, the gearbox also has a certain relationship with comfort. Generally speaking, the smoother the power output, the higher the comfort of the vehicle. For example, CVT gearboxes and AT gearboxes tend to take into account smoothness, so they have better comfort than dual-clutch gearboxes that focus more on sports.

 

5 Interior space

 

In terms of interior space, we generally compare from three aspects: horizontal (length), vertical (width) and height. In addition, the interior space of a car is often related to the seat layout, chassis structure and body design. For example, Honda has moved the fuel tank of some models from under the conventional rear seat to under the front seat to free up a certain amount of space.

 

interior space

For passengers, when examining the front row space, they generally focus on the headroom and width. For rear passengers, in addition to head room and width, leg room must also be considered.

 

In addition, at present, some models adopt the slip-back design, so the headroom of the rear passengers will be squeezed to a certain extent; at the same time, some models shrink the rear windows from the B-pillar to the C-pillar , resulting in a smaller window opening area, causing motion sickness for customers and affecting the riding experience.

 

6. Mute effect

 

In addition to more comfortable seats and a wider space, there is another point that affects the user's driving experience, which is the mute effect. And what about the mute effect of a car? You can feel the noise level of these four aspects of the vehicle: engine, body structure, tires, airflow (air) around the body.

 

As for cars, generally it will directly affect the sound insulation effect of cars, except for shock absorption, it is sound insulation materials.

 

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