I hear everyone complaining about the bouncing, but I'm confused. I mean, I noticed it when I test drove the car, and obviously it didn't bother me enough to stop me from buying the car, although I already figured I'd upgrade the suspension (probably the NISMO setup, maybe something else).

But, for all the people that cite that as a reason for selling the car... Did you not notice on the test drive, not drive the car, or what?

 

I was under the impression that the S tune Nismo upgrade would make the rough ride a bit worse.It is a sports car and should be bouncy.

 

first, i'm not really bothered by the bouncing, and certainly wouldn't sell the car over it. but are you *sure* you're talking about the same 'bouncing' other people are?

i did not experience the bouncing when test driving. i noticed the rough suspension, and was fine with it. the bouncing only happens under very specific circumstances, it's not there all the time. you have to be going a certain speed and the road has to have a certain roll to it. there are certain parts of the freeway (segmented cement blocks) where it shows up. never happens on asphalt roads.

 

Happens on asphalt near my home every day.

 

The Z is a sports car , it has a sports car suspension. It is suppose to be FIRM.

In regards to the “bounce”; I agree again. I’ve only experienced it on certain concrete roads around town and generally between 60 and 80 MPH..

 

Sports car FIRM suspensions are harsh on the ride but they don't bounce.

I wasn't bothered with the bouncing affecting me as much as I was bothered that it might be a symptom of a suspension problem contributing to the tire feathering problem.

I didn't sell my car because of the bouncing problem but because of a plethora of problems and a lack of dealer/NNA support. The bounce wouldn't have bothered me much at all, if I were positive it wasn't a symptom of a mismatched suspension problem that might be exaggerating the tire wear problem.

 

Whoa, wait a minute! If you don't know what the bounce is then you have not experienced it. Let's just say it's more like a lowrider with hydraulics. You may hit your head if your on the wrong road. There are only a couple of roads here that do it. If it was an everyday thing I would sell because of it.

 

It can get pretty bad. It's like a car riding on chopped springs and that's why I hypothesize that the springs are mismatched to the shocks or vice versa.

 

I must have a different car.

 

I has happened to me once on a single stretch of highway and it was terrible.... I never experienced anything like it before... the bounce is front to back to front to back. I couldn't believe it! It's like driving over a bunch of logs tied together.

When we talk about bounce, we're not talking about the firm ride.

 

I've experienced it too, its like goin up and down on a roller coaster, enough that I had to slow down it felt unsafe

 

You gotta remember alot of us put deposits down long before we ever in the show rooms. Also you only experience the porposing on certain types of roads.
The bouncing isn't near as bad as the tab for your first set of tires

 

...or trying to get Nissan to buy you new fronts after only 5k miles!

 

I always hear positive things on a Porsche Boxster, it's a sports car and it handles beautifully and is very responsive. Why didn't the engineers at Nissan just copy the suspension from the Boxster???

 

A mid-engine car is going to handle better than a front-engine car no matter what suspension is in the front-engine car.

Anyway, the suspension design is pretty different in a mid-engine car, like the Boxster. It's not like you can just cut-and-paste the design over to a front-engine car.

What I'm starting to wonder about is if Nissan really designed this suspension for the G35 (blasphemy, right?). The Gs have none of the problems the Zs have and the parts seem to be exactly the same. The G has no problems yet it has a longer wheelbase and it weighs slightly more. Take those same parts over to the Z with a shorter wheelbase and less weight (probably even a slightly different weight distribution) and it won't be right. Just a theory.

 

I think the "design problem" is the Nissan engineers didn't take into account the crappy roads in the Northern/Mid-West states here in the US. The bad winter weather, wear & tear, and lack of proper maintance!!

We just have bad roads here

 

Seems like this argument comes up all the time. One person complains about the weird bouncing effect, and other people respond with the "it's a sports car, it's supposed to be rough" reply. I don't have my car yet (still on order), but from what I understand this problem is *not* people simply complaining about stiff suspension. It sounds like the car's suspension get into some sort of harmonic cycle of bouncing when you get on certain roads at certain speeds. This bouncing just continues to build until you slow down or do something to break the harmonic cycle. If this is what's happening, then it's simply badly designed suspension; namely the shocks.

My current car had very stiff aftermarket suspension on it for years, and I *never* experienced anything like what I've been reading about here. My suspension was very rough, but it didn't ever get into some harmonic on the freeway. I also test drove some 2004 Zs a couple of times on the freeway, and I never felt this bounce. It's possible that the 2004 models fixed it, or the roads near my dealers didn't cause the problem. Hard to say.

 

I think part of the problem is the bushings on the suspension even dwnshift has alluded to it. But in any event its mostly undulating concrete patches of road that cause the (harmonic).As others have stated asphalt is fine.

 

Poor shock/spring match.

 

Hum, haven't experienced that bouncing yet....