My only dissatisfaction in 44k miles is road surface & suspension noise. I,ve reduced surface noise with under carpet padding & foam filled frame rails, but can,t get a handle on soft boom boom reverbs. The 09 Jetta TDI has nicely addressed this situation ( not the Rabbit) but I don,t have $28k. <g

anybody?

 

Only way I know to decrease road noise is to increase radio/CD volume. $20K vehicles are not know for their quiet ride. Wish I could give you a better option, but it appears you have done all you can do in regard to sound deadening.

 

Could be a worn out strut. Have they been replaced?

 

Newest Malibu is quiet, but other gms that share that platform are not. If one unibody, strut suspension can be quiet, why not all? Would buy a malibu wagon.

 

Ive been underneath mine alot. That whole area is not conducive to being quiet. Add to that the cargo area and it really does transmit road/suspension noise. Ive gotten used to it and like ChevMgr said, I crank up the music to drown it out.

 

You padded under the carpet but did you do anything in the spare tire well or in the rear side panels or doors? Transfer into the sheet metal in the spare tire well from the rear suspension could easily cause hard to trace sounds. I would suggest you try Dynamat, or one of the other self adhesive rubberized coating on the spare tire well area and see if this helps with you noise issue. Of course Dynamating all the exposed metal surfaces in the car would help but that gets costly real fast.........

just my $.02