Vehicle ride is a subjective thing and people have varying abilities to perceive the differences. While some folks can drive over a quarter and feel it, there are others who couldn’t tell the difference between a dump truck and a Buick on a cobblestone road.
This is not an insult at all People have differing abilities to perceive the magnitude of vibration, jolts and bumps… This is my evaluation based on years of doing ride development work tuning springs, mounts and shocks as well as a study commissioned by GM in the 1980’s (while I worked for them.) People vary pretty much linearly in their ability to identify changes, good or bad, in ride quality. Of 100 people, 10 will be downright dead-rears and 10 will be as sensitive as the “Princess and the Pea”. The other 80 will span the range. It isn’t a bell curve.
The point of the study was to automate the best ride-development engineers. It didn’t pan out but it provided valuable information. That’s why so much attention is lavished on developing springs, shocks, mounts, vehicle structure and tires. You can’t afford to upset the most sensitive 20 or 30% of your potential owners.
While @VOLVO_V70 might be just fine with an inexpensive tire another will decidedly not be happy on the exact same car!
My experience in this area has been very different. I’ve had at least five different sets of tires of different makes on my current car in the past 12 years, all ultra high performance ratings, all all-season tires, and all the same size, and each rides and handles noticeably differently.
The OEMs, Firestone REs, wore okay, but their traction was poor. Handling was only acceptable.
the replacements were Goodyears. Marginal in all respects.
their replacements were Coopers. Phenomenal traction and handling. Tracked dead-on. They felt glued to the pavement no matter what I did and no matter the road conditions. I’ve never had a tire that was so great in traction. Great ride. Poor wear. Compound so soft I could actually feel the added rolling resistance and my mileage dropped while I had them.
Their replacements were Hankooks. Good handling, good traction, marginal wear.
I currently have Definities, a Pepboys house brand purchased in an emergency when I blew two tires on a stone dropped by a truck and they only had those and Michelins in my size & preferred ratings. Poor tracking, marginal ride, handling & noise, and poor traction in the wet. I would only use them again in an emergency. I’ve had Michelins on another car and don’t feel they’re worth the price premium.
Next pair will probably be BF Goodys if I can find them in my size and preferred ratings.
In short, I’ve found different makes to have very different handling & ride. However I also realize that much of that may be the car itself. Some cars are very attached to the pavement, some do a great job isolating the driver from the road.
I can tell you that ride harshness is a quality that is NOT quantified for the consumer.
But it can also vary within a brand and it isn’t tied to speed rating or size or any other thing a consumer can read about - except to say that GENERALLY higher speed rated tires have harsher ride (but it’s far from a sure fire thing!)