I came thisclose to buying an M3P back in September, but blinked and held onto my 2013 Audi S6. Then the price drop happened, and I haven't been able to get the M3 out of my mind since then.
Last weekend, on a whim I pinged my sales dude asking if there happened to be a car in my preferred spec (Pearl White over black, Performance Pack, no EAP) in stock somewhere close for immediate delivery. There was, and bam!, I put down my deposit. I'm excited, but also concerned. The 2 things that stopped me back in September were the interior quality and the ride comfort. I've gotten over/made peace with the interior question, but the ride quality still has me a little concerned. To me It feels firm but decent from the front seats, but not so great in the back seats. My Audi has an adjustable air suspension that goes from limo-smooth to firm, but not as firm as the M3P.
Has anyone else made the move from a larger, softer car to the M3P, and/or can anyone comment on the M3P's overall ride quality? TIA!
Overall I have to believe that you are gonna love the model 3 performance version coming from an Audi S6.
My experience of the overall ride quality of the Model 3 is pretty positive, but the caveat here is I'm coming from a heavily modified Lexus IS 350 not from a big cruisemobile. The 3P is firm, and if I were driving over really really bad roads I might have at least put on
the so-called "comfort springs" from MPP, particularly if I did not have the luxury of getting lighter weight wheels. But our experience has been that with the dropping of unsprung weight from lighter weight wheels (23 pounds), and with the warmer weather in Florida, the ride is actually pretty supple despite the 35 series tires, and quite smooth overall. Don't know about the difference between subjective ride quality in the front seat versus the back seat as I've never ridden back there, but the problem in the back seat is the low seat height, which may exacerbate other forms of discomfort.
One option is that you could simply "downgrade" to a lightweight 19 inch wheels, and put on just the stock 235/40-19 Size in the Pilot Sport 4S, and drop some serious unsprung weight that way and get significantly more sidewall (and ride compliance), without giving up much of anything in the handling department. That would probably give you significantly better ride. You could even go to something like a 265/35-19, In a 9.5 inch wheel but at that point your probably not gaining much in the ride department (mostly picking up peak handling). Both of those options are of course a significant outlay of cash to get both wheels and tires.
Of course you could combine these options but getting both the Comfort Springs, and forged wheels in the 19 inch size and then a new set of 4S tires would be an outlay of at least 4.5 grand – It's not a small chunk of change after you buy an expensive car.
I think if you find that the ride is just a bit too harsh or too firm your cheapest option is just to get lighter weight 20 inch wheels. You can get a
lightweight Vertini wheel at 22 pounds at getyourwheels.com, for a pretty reasonable amount of money, and for another $200 a wheel you can get
VS forged, but that only saves you one more pound corner. Hopefully you'll be satisfied with the ride, but if you need snow tires you're probably gonna have to get a wheel anyway. I would start with consideration of one of these two options.
One thing I wouldn't change is the stock tire unless you're going to be tracking the car – the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S is the best street tire out there hands down, no contest. Nothing is even close. It rides well, handles brilliantly, and is very quiet. I believe Tesla had that tire specially spec'ed out for them, as it is actually a touch wider than the other 235/35-20 available from tire rack (3/10 of an inch wider in terms of the tread). It has acoustic foam as well as this slightly wider aspect ratio tread. In the wet it even beats a Bridgestone RE 71 (not really a street tire), and it's only about 2/10 of a second slower on the track in Tire Rack's testing in the dry.