DanJetta wrote:Don't underestimate the power of what you hear. I think part of why the ride feels so harsh is because everything inside the car is so cheap and rattly, so the ride is perceived as being harsher than it really is. I drove through downtown Baltimore with noise-cancelling headphones on (as a joke with my wife) and I noticed that the ride seemed a lot better. The inside no longer sounded like a giant baby rattle. Well, it did, but I couldn't hear it.

When I hit a pothole in my wife's Jetta, I only hear the suspension working. When I hit a pothole in the Pathfinder, I hear the entire dash shifting, the door internals rattling, the hatch banging and every other plastic part inside the car vibrating in some form. It sounds like an all-out collision.

DanJetta wrote:When I hit a pothole in the Pathfinder, I hear the entire dash shifting, the door internals rattling, the hatch banging and every other plastic part inside the car vibrating in some form. It sounds like an all-out collision.

NVSteve wrote: One of the first mods I did was replace the springs & shocks. It is firmer, but it is no longer bouncy like it was at stock. I can now drive over a big bump without feeling much of anything, whereas before my suspension would bottom out with a big bounce.