Car suspension – are you on the road to ruin?

We’ve all cursed speed bumps and potholes as a nuisance and annoyance. But did you know they can inflict genuine harm on your auto?

Around a third of drivers need their car suspension repaired each year, according to Warranty Direct. And yes, speed bumps and potholes are largely to blame.

Bump and grind

Some cars are much more susceptible to damage than other people. You may well have previously envied the driver of the smartAudi RS6 or the flash Mercedes R-Class. But turns out they deserve our pity as they are much more most likely to suffer suspension damage than any other cars in the UK.

Fiat’s 6-seater Multipla and the Jaguar XK sports automobile are also vulnerable, with 29% and 28.5% of Warranty Direct buyers claiming for harm to axle and suspension components on their vehicles annually.

Damaged goods

In reality, Warranty Direct’s database of 50,000 live policies shows that the most vulnerable cars are up to 30 occasions much more probably to claim for suspension harm than the most robust automobiles.

The repairs aren’t low cost, either. They cost on typical £247, which proves that bumps in the road are also a discomfort in the pocket. Ouch!

So which are the robust models?

The Citroën C1 and Peugeot 107 – ostensibly the same vehicle in a joint venture between the 2 businesses – are seemingly impervious to the UK’s pothole-ridden roads.

The Honda S2000 sports auto is also pretty tough.

Suspension of belief

David Gerrans, managing director of Warranty Direct, is shocked by the benefits of the survey: “It’s nearly unbelievable how considerably variation there is from one model to one more when it comes to suspension harm.

“Instead of inexpensive runabouts, luxury vehicles and stiffly-sprung sports automobiles are most prone to breakdowns – with the exception of the Honda S2000.”

A sturdy car is essential if you consider that almost 20% of roads in England are classed as in poor situation. The circumstance is also unlikely to improve anytime quickly as there is a £12 billion – yes, £12 billion – backlog of road repairs.

Eastern guarantee

So possibly the very best guidance if you want a vehicle that can withstand the potholes and speed bumps on the UK’s roads, is to buy Japanese.

Cars created by Honda, Isuzu and Toyota have the most robust suspension systems, with much less than 3% suffering an annual failure.

A Bentley, on the other hand, is a costly but fragile issue: 28% will endure suspension harm in a standard year.

Will you tell the Queen or need to I?

Axle and suspension failure prices

Supply: Warranty Direct

Car suspension – are you on the road to ruin?

2016 Jaguar XE Information: F-type–Derived Suspension, Electric Power Steering, and Much more

Jaguar has set a date for the debut of its all-new BMW 3-series competitor, the 2016 XE, and the company also has released a handful of technical highlights. The XE, which was initial officially confirmed at this year’s Geneva auto show, will greet the planet on September 8, 2014, at a “star-studded event” in London. To give us tech geeks something to chew on in the time just before the reveal, Jaguar detailed the XE’s front and rear suspension styles, steering setup, and new traction-control program. 

When it comes to making the XE a accurate “sports sedan,” it would appear Jaguar is not messing about. The automaker describes the XE’s unequal-length control-arm front suspension as becoming “F-type–derived.” The rear suspension is getting called an “Integral Link” design and style that Jaguar claims is a lot more powerful than a common multilink setup when it comes to longitudinal and lateral stiffness, though it does not specify just how the Integral Link’s benefit is gained. In each the front and rear suspension assemblies, lots of forged- and cast-aluminum pieces are utilized to keep unsprung weight in check.

For the very first time in a Jaguar, steering assist will be handled electrically, no doubt to help maximize fuel economy. The automaker promises that the XE’s electric energy steering will have all of the really feel and character as its generally outstanding hydraulically assisted setups, but we’ll wait to render final judgment till we drive the XE for ourselves. Switching to an electric rack allows Jaguar to link the steering really feel to diverse drive modes—e.g., stiffer for a sport setting, lazier for a comfort mode, and so on.—as properly as enabling integration with a host of unspecified driver-help technologies (probably which includes a lane-maintaining feature).

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Finally, Jaguar has previewed the XE’s new traction-control system, dubbed “All Surface Progress Control,” once again without having going into a lot detail. As Jaguar describes it, All Surface Progress Handle “works like a low-speed cruise control to provide optimum traction in the most slippery situations without having skidding and without the driver making use of the pedals.” It sounds intriguing, but so far all we know is that it will be offered on the rear-drive XE its availability on the anticipated all-wheel-drive XE has not but been specified.

Primarily based on an image of the XE’s chassis technologies released by Jaguar, it would seem as though 3 far more XE-particular info drops are headed our way ahead of the vehicle debuts in September. We wouldn’t be surprised if one particular of the next XE tidbits offers info on its engines. Jaguar not too long ago detailed its new Ingenium family of turbocharged 4-cylinders (1 of which is anticipated to power the XE), and we know the F-type’s supercharged V-6 is headed to the XE’s engine bay, too. We’ll keep you posted as a lot more details becomes offered.

2016 Jaguar XE Information: F-type–Derived Suspension, Electric Power Steering, and Much more