Hi Guys, I'm waiting for my CLE 300 non-AGM line model. I was reading this review article Review: 2024 Mercedes-Benz CLE-Class keeps the coupe alive and realized that adaptive damper is not available in the U.S model. But in CLE300 feature list, there is feature called "Comfort tuned suspension", which I thought it is the same as the adaptive damper. It says "Engineered to ideally balance comfort and control, selective damping can automatically adjust the individual shock absorbers based on the road surface and the driver's current driving style. Valving inside each shock absorber are designed to firm up during stronger body motions for sharper handling feedback and stability, and reduce the damping rate during gentler motions for a smoother, more composed ride." in the description.
I guess "The driver's current driving style" refers to the Dynamic mode select. and Firms up / reduces the damping rate depending on road surface means it changes damping rate on the fly?
How does it different than the adaptive damper system? Anyone know?

 

The selective damping feature in this suspension has two damper settings. A soft setting and a firm setting. It automatically chooses between the two depending on how you are driving. If you are aggressively taking corners and subjecting the cars body to large movement, then it automatically selects the firm setting, but if you just plod along, then it selects the soft setting. As the driver however you have no control over it. The drive mode does not affect it. Only how you drive and whether the body experience large movement or not.

An adaptive suspension on the other hand works on a continuum. It constantly measures what's going on via multiple sensors and then fine tunes the damping multiple times per second. It has many more valve positions essentially to influence the damping across a wider range. In addition, the driver can influence it by choosing one of three suspension modes. Comfort, Sport and Sport+. This sets the base damping characteristics and tells the suspension how sporty you want it to act. So as opposed to the selective damping, with the adaptive suspension you can put it in Sport+ and firm it up even if you are not driving aggressively. So as a driver you can tell the suspension whenever you want it to be overall comfortable, sporty or super sporty.

The selective damping suspension has gotten better over the generations. I did not like it very much in the past, because in normal driving it was too floaty and as said in order to firm it up I had to basically corner aggressively, but while cruising on the highway it was floaty. In contrast, with my AMG I usually put the suspension in Sport on the highway regardless of how I'm driving in order to have a more poised and composed experience at all times, and around town I keep it in Comfort. Point being, I have direct control over the suspension.

 

I see. So, CLE only has 2 settings, firm and soft. This should be good enough for me.
Thank you!

 

Essentially yes, but with the important caveat that you can't manually choose between the two. It'll mostly be in the soft setting based on typical daily driving and only go to the firm setting if you start driving aggressively in corners.