Edit: Wow thanks for all of the great responses, I was watching Goodfellas and was looking at the cars bouncing all over the place and thinking why was that. I’d love to drive in one to experience it someday.
In: 3156
If we’re talking big luxurious US stuff, here is a random bucket of reasons that apply to greater or lesser degrees.
Prioritization of highway comfort above all, and not really many types of road where cornering performance mattered much. If you’re wanting a car to feel like sitting on a couch at 60mph all day and you don’t have many corners, soft suspension is the way.
No real tradition of the kinds of motorsport that pushed European sports cars into lots of their handling developments.
Mediocre old cross-ply tires with tall sidewalls, making for both mushy handling AND worse ride comfort, so softer suspension would help the ride, but stiffer suspension probably still wouldn’t make them handle great.
Quite a lot of weight to control, and not all that much attention paid to keeping the centre of gravity low (compared to what you might see in lighter, sportier, more cornering focused stuff)
Big luxury cars in reasonably cheap market segments. Big luxurious European stuff of the era was generally all pretty high priced, so could afford to spend money on fancy handling stuff like hydraulic self leveling suspension etc. With a Mercedes S Class budget you can make a big car handle. With an entry level Cadillac budget those kinds of tech are probably out of reach.. (plus many of those technologies were European developed anyway)
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