Prius Stiff Ride

 I think my new Prius rides pretty harshly--especially when compared to
my old Camry's famous Toyota ride.  I now have a little over 2,000
miles on it and (it could be my imagination) but the ride seems to
have softened a little bit during this break-in period.  Does it get
any softer as the miles rack up or does it just stay harsh and choppy?

 
That may be due in part to the stock tires.  You could go with an
alternative type to improve ride and handling at the cost of a couple of
MPGs.

 

It does seem to ride better with more miles -- at least our 06 did that.
What seems to make the most difference is tire pressure, however.  We go
with the recommended pressure to get maximum gas mileage (and tire pressure
does make a difference); but we've noticed that when the tires are a pound
or two low, the ride is better.

TKM

 TKM wrote:

One can get noticeably higher MPG by inflating the tires over the
needlessly low 'recommended pressure'.  42 front and 40 rear is what I
use.  The tires wore out perfectly evenly at 48K miles.  Yep, I feel the
road more, but I grew up on GM cars (as opposed to mushy Ford) so I like
that feel.  This is one of the reasons (among other reasons) that I like
Toyotas, they have a similar road feel in my hands to the old GM cars.
Tomes

 

Interesting.  I thoght the Prius tire pressure emphasized gas mileage over
ride at the recommended values.  I did try over-inflating the tires on my 94
Volvo (that's the Volvo before Ford meddled with it).  Handling was fine and
gas mileage improved; but I lost more wheel covers and suspension parts
seened to wear faster.

TKM