Background <p>Asymmetric damping is widely used in passive vehicle suspensions, with rebound damping often recommended to exceed compression damping by a factor of two to three. Despite its prevalence, this guideline remains largely empirical and lacks a systematic derivation based on vehicle dynamics and excitation conditions. </p> Methods <p>This paper presents a scenario-driven optimization framework that provides a principled explanation for the effectiveness of asymmetric damping. A minimal quarter-car model is employed to isolate the key mechanisms governing the trade-off between ride comfort, road holding, and transient response, using standardized ISO&#xa0;8608 road excitations. Rebound and compression damping ratios are treated as independent design variables, and optimal configurations are identified via a stochastic Cross-Entropy algorithm applied to a non-convex, simulation-based objective function. Performance is assessed through ISO&#xa0;2631 weighted RMS acceleration, tire–ground contact force variability, and settling time. </p> Results <p>The results show that symmetric damping is often sufficient under moderate excitation, whereas asymmetric damping becomes necessary under severe conditions, with commonly cited rebound-to-compression ratios emerging as scenario-dependent near-optimal solutions rather than universal constants.</p>