To characterize a behavior of a vehicle, a subjective behavior test is conducted on a given configuration of a suspension device and a wheel disc of the vehicle to determine whether the vehicle's behavior is acceptable. Modifications are made to the given configuration so as to sweep through pairs of values corresponding to a lateral force Fy and a lateral offset Dy of the wheel in straight-line running. For each modified configuration of the suspension device and/or the wheel disc, the subjective behavior test is conducted again. For each configuration of the suspension device and the wheel disc tested, a determination is made of a pair of values of the lateral force Fy and the lateral offset Dy of the wheel in straight-line running. Areas Z of acceptable behavior of the vehicle in a plane Fy, Dy are determined.