This piece of research aims to design and evaluate an impedance-based control for vehicle suspension on the basis of the proposed generalized skyhook-groundhook hybrid strategy. Different from classical impedance control, the proposed impedance-based control optimizes and generalizes the skyhook-groundhook structure from the perspective of complex domain mechanical impedance. A controllable inerter is designed and its nonlinearity is identified based on the bench experiment to realize the proposed impedance-based control. The hybrid weighting coefficient of the skyhook and groundhook in impedance-based control is determined via the 95th percentile aggregate fourth-power force. The numerical analysis demonstrates that the proposed impedance-based control in the ideal model and the nonlinear model can both enhance the suspension performance in ride comfort and road friendly significantly. Furthermore, the impedance-based control can be surprisingly simple as the traditional skyhook damper control and much easier for realization than the feedback-based control strategies. In addition, the influence of nonlinearity and sprung mass on suspension performance verifies that the designed suspension can maintain stability under different working conditions. In conclusion, the impedance-based control manifests a great prospect in vibration control and provides a new design principle for the vibration control system.