hope this isn’t too specific and too personal for this forum.
I’m looking for a sporty 4-door (sedan? crossover?) that’s also quiet. White noise on long trips wears me down so wind noise and tire noise are problematic for me. I don’t mind a nice engine sound as long as it settles down quiet on the highway.
It’s kinda hard to find noise-level data in car reviews, probably because it is hard to measure and subjective. I’ve been doing mostly review comparos (yeah I know I need to get out and test drive).
I did test drive the 330i, lexus NX 300? (the turbo one), and the Tesla M3. The bimmer and the lexus were ok, but a bit noisier than I would prefer. The M3 is just loud.
I’ve read the A4 with the acoustic glass option in one of the packages is quiet but I haven’t tried it.
data I have is from consumer reports on a 1-5 scale. No idea what this means or if it is even consistent.
noise levels according to CR
330i: 4/5
230i coupe: 4/5
228 GC: 4/5
C-class: 4/5
A4: 5/5
IS: 4/5
G70: 4/5
Jag XE: 4/5
Guilia: 4/5
(as you can see, not helpful)
Oh, one hard requirement - car has to be <= 188 inches to fit in my garage.
Mercedes E class is supposed to be super quiet and comfy, but it’s 190 inches. I don’t think any compact sedan is going to be quiet. But I know what you mean. My Kona EV has no engine noise, but at highway speeds, the wind and road noise is so loud that I have to turn up the volume to like 50% on the crappy stereo on the Limited. Kind of regret not getting the Ultimate trim just to have a nicer stereo to drown out the road noise.
I believe most of the cars you listed come standard with run flat tires and no spare. Try to find one with smaller wheels and a spare, and swap the run flats for normal tires to decrease road noise. It’s an extra up front expense, but I’ve found normal tires last much longer, and you’ll have fresh run flats to return with the lease, so no worries about getting charged for worn tires.
What bothered you in bmw and lexus? Tire noise or road noise? Are you looking to buy or lease the car and if buy, how adverse are you to making modifications? If the BMW you test drove was using run flats, those are also louder than normal tires.
For wind noise you can’t really do much outside of seals and acoustic glass, both of which the car either has or doesn’t. Cars with mirrors mounted on a side of the door rather than in the corner also tend to do better with wind noise. But for road noise you can line everything with dynamat or similar. It does a good job silencing, but since it’s an install with removing panels and trim (depending on where you want it installed), I wouldn’t do that to a leased car.
Of course…in Cali, it is illegal handling a phone while operating a vehicle, so there is/was a big push to move everyone to Bluetooth earbuds or other hands-free options. I have custom molds for my ears and can hear sirens and horns just fine, which is allowed under our CVC. Hearing protection is also allowed, so those Etymotics 20db attenuators often used in concerts and performance are permissible, again so long as horns and sirens can be heard.
Rent (as close as you can make/model/trim) whatever car is on your shortlist, or ask the dealer for an overnight
measure the noise levels and see what does/doesn’t bother you
Nobody here can really speak to your tolerance, AND manufacturers change the sound dampening material and amounts. No guarantee that last year’s ES will be as quiet as this year’s
That’s what ultimately makes these threads useless for everyone. I don’t like noise, but I consider noise to be higher frequencies. Low rumble doesn’t bother me, but the quietest squeaking will drive me nuts. We don’t know what OPs problem boils down to, it could be RFTs, it could be wind, it could be the way HVAC blows for all anyone knows.
My wife and I test drove an Audi A4 last year and were amazed by how quiet it was. We had a Lexus 350es, and ended up with a BMW 530i, but the Audi was a lot quieter than both of them. Pretty sure it had upgraded dual-pane windows. Might want to check that out.
