How can I make my car feel softer over bumps?
Dear Alex,
I bought a used Ford Ecosport, but my wife and I find the ride very harsh after my Ford Kuga Titanium, due to the low-profile tyres. Can I simply change the tyres for ones with a taller profile, to improve the comfort, or would this affect the suspension and/or invalidate my insurance? Would it also affect the speedometer reading?
–SW
Dear SW,
The short answer is that while it is possible to simply fit tyres with deeper sidewalls, it's not advisable. Doing so will increase the rolling radius of each wheel, which, as you suggest, will not only affect the speedometer calibration but could result in the tyre fouling suspension components or even the wheel arches. It will also result in a slight increase in ride height, which might make the car more prone to leaning over in corners.
One potential solution is to find out whether there's a smaller wheel and tyre option for the Ecosport than the size fitted to your car. If you can drop from, say, 17in wheels to 16in items with a deeper sidewall, you'll naturally gain profile while retaining the same rolling radius.
You will, of course, have to inform your insurance company, which may result in a slight increase in your premium – so get a quote first. But most insurance companies have no issue with allowing alloy wheel swaps if they are original equipment items.
One other thought: are summer tyres fitted? If so, changing to all-season rubber may help. These usually have a slightly softer compound, so they offer more give over bumps. The difference in suspension feel will probably be minimal, but every little helps.
Of course, you could do all this and find the ride quality still isn't great. The Ecosport wasn't well received by the motoring press, its firmness being a consistent criticism.
There's only so much you can do with the wheels and tyres to mitigate a car that is fundamentally choppy over bumps, after all. So if it's really bothering you, it might be worth considering switching to a different model that's more pliant.
None of these small SUVs is exemplary in this regard, but you should find the Skoda Kamiq to be a little softer.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
30-05-2025
- Telegraph
Can I leave an electric car unattended for a long time?
Dear Alex, I live in the UK, but I am away for up to six months. I am considering buying a small electric vehicle as a runaround. How long will a fully charged electric car hold its charge? What happens if the battery is left to go flat? Is this bad for the battery, and will I lose all the computer information etc? How should I get it ready for use after such a long absence? Finally, is it safe to leave a car on charge for up to half a year? – PN Dear PN, There are no hard and fast figures on how quickly an EV battery will lose its charge, but most of the experts I've spoken to reckon a battery will lose one or two per cent of its charge each month. If you're going to take an EV off the road for a longer period, it's generally agreed that it's best to charge it to 80 per cent, which is better for long-term battery health than a full charge. By doing so, even at a rate of two per cent loss each year, it would still take just over three years to flatten the battery completely. Even then, the battery wouldn't be entirely dead, because even when an EV reads zero, there's still a little bit of charge left – manufacturers tend to leave a small margin because flattening a battery completely is not good for its long-term health. So if you leave the car with 80 per cent charge for a few months, you should still have a healthy amount remaining when you return. I wouldn't recommend leaving it on charge on a three-pin socket all that time, however, three-pin sockets aren't designed for continuous high power use, so while charging that way is fine on occasion, I wouldn't leave a car plugged in for that length of time. In terms of getting the car ready for use, disconnecting the 12V battery (which powers the ancillaries) before you leave is a good idea, as parasitic drain will almost certainly flatten it while you're away. You may lose some of the settings on the car's computers, but otherwise you shouldn't see any ill effects. If you don't fancy that, you could instead use a trickle charger to keep the battery topped up. Also, increase the tyre pressure – to 50psi, say – to avoid flat-spotting, but remember to return the pressures to normal before you drive.
Daily Mirror
29-05-2025
- Daily Mirror
George Russell speaks his mind after getting more severe F1 penalty
The F1 stewards handed George Russell a harsher penalty than usual for his corner cutting at the Monaco Grand Prix as they took a dim view of his radio comments afterwards George Russell said it was "ironic" that he got a better result at the Monaco Grand Prix despite a hefty sanction. The British driver was handed a drive-through penalty during the race which saw him lose around 20 seconds in time. That was for deciding to cut the Nouvelle Chicane in anger, having been stuck behind Alex Albon while the Williams racer was driving intentionally slowly. He was doing so to give team-mate Carlos Sainz a pit window in which he wouldn't lose any places on track, using the narrow Monte Carlo streets to their advantage. Russell cut the chicane to overtake Albon and refused to give the place back when asked to do so by his Mercedes race engineer. He said over the radio he would rather take the penalty, which was not well received by the stewards. In a statement, they confirmed that they had taken that as evidence that he cut the corner intentionally and, instead of a five or 10 second time penalty, that meant they opted for the more severe sanction of a drive-through penalty which cost him around 20 seconds overall. Sign up to our free weekly F1 newsletter, Pit Lane Chronicle, by entering your email address below so that every new edition lands straight in your inbox! But, because Albon was moving so slowly, Russell made up most of that time before he even served the penalty. And, reflecting on it ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, the Brit lamented that he didn't get the chance to have fun driving around Monaco, mostly because his power unit problem in qualifying left him so far down the order. He said: "I was getting tired of staring at the back of a Williams rear wing for 50 laps, to be honest. It was a bit ironic because I finished higher up the order by doing that move than I would have done if I just stuck behind Alex. I pulled a [gap to cover a] whole pit stop in the space of three laps and then I was free to do my own race. "The weekend was gone so early. We weren't fighting for anything. You get the same points for P11 as you do for P20. I just wanted to enjoy Monaco – I didn't get the chance on Saturday. "It's the most adrenaline you get in a whole season and I didn't have that chance because of what happened. I at least enjoyed the last 25 laps of the race. It's not part of a new, 'George Russell being a rebel cutting the track' – it was just getting tired of seeing Alex driving like a grandma. "It was a deserved penalty. I think that should never be allowed. If I was in the points and if I was racing Alex, I would never have done that. He had already done two pit stops. I hadn't even done one single pit stop. He was only driving so slow to benefit his team-mate. It wasn't to benefit him against me, it was to benefit him against the drivers around him. "So, as I said, I wasn't doing it for a sporting gain. I was just doing it for my own enjoyment because it was a bit rubbish. But the penalty I received, on any other circuit, in any other circumstance, was more than fair." The pair of them buried the hatchet in the hours after the race, with Albon picking up the bill after they had dinner together.
Telegraph
28-05-2025
- Telegraph
Which new cars have driver assistance features that are easy to switch off?
Dear Alex, I recently bought a new Toyota Yaris and the speed limit alerts and lane-keeping assist affecting the steering are driving me bonkers. It's not simple to switch them off, so which new cars have a simple push button to cancel these so-called driver aids? – BC Dear BC, You're not the only one. These systems are now mandatory on all new cars, yet buyers I've heard from almost universally despise them simply because they don't work quite as well as intended. Lane keeping assistance, for example, can often be over-zealous. Some models simply vibrate the steering wheel to warn you if you cross a white line without indicating, but many nudge the steering wheel back into the correct lane. This can be not only distracting, but unsafe – for example, if you move out to pass a cyclist without indicating (as you may wish to, if indicating could cause confusion), some cars will calculate that you're drifting across the white line unintentionally and push the steering back into your lane – toward the cyclist. Speed limit warning systems use cameras to detect roadside signs and emit an audible alert if you exceed the prevailing limit by more than a certain margin. The trouble is that these systems still aren't reliable, despite having been around for more than a decade. Only recently, one car tried to tell me it was in a 35mph speed limit. Never mind that such a thing doesn't exist in the UK; the limit was actually 40mph, which meant the car then bleeped at me repeatedly to tell me I was speeding, when I wasn't. No wonder so many buyers want to turn off these so-called safety aids. In fact, it has got to the point that at launches of new cars their makers point out how easy it is to do so. That's right – manufacturers are being forced to fit systems that are so unfit for purpose that they're boasting about how easy it is to switch them off. In addition, buyers are paying for these systems as part of the list price – it's one of the reasons new car prices have inflated over the last few years. The situation is absurd, which is putting it diplomatically. Who is to blame? Car makers point to legislators influenced by Euro NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme), the safety and crash testing organisation, which requires such systems to be fitted in order for a car to achieve the maximum five-star safety rating. Euro NCAP, for its part, says many makers are fitting cheaper systems – and this corner-cutting is resulting in driver aids that don't work as well as they should. Either way, I don't blame you for wanting a car in which it's easy to switch off these systems. The models I've found in which it's easiest to do so are Peugeots Renaults and Nissans, which allow you to set up one button that you can press and hold to do it all. Citroën, meanwhile, has started fitting buttons for both these systems next to each other, so that you can turn them off by pressing both at the same time. Hyundai and Kia now fit a press-and-hold function on two of the steering wheel buttons, which has the same effect. Also worth considering are the cars with systems that are better calibrated and therefore don't cause you to want to switch them off in the first place. Of these, Volvo 's is about the best – I rarely feel the need to deactivate its lane keeping system as it works well, only kicking in when it really needs to. Volkswagen's speed limit warning, meanwhile, is so quiet (perhaps deliberately) that you can barely hear it over the radio.
