Hello all

I recently had a conversation with my local wheel shop salesman about suspension options. I told the guy that i was thinking about replacing the shocks and springs with tokico blues and Tein H springs. He immediatley said I should just swap the stock suspension with coilovers all around, eventhough it will cost me more money. I told him that the car is my daily driver and I'm not going to track the car (althought I do like driving a bit aggressive whenever possible), but he was very presistant that I do so regardless.

So my question is, do i really need to switch to coilovers, eventhough im not going to track the car and I'm only looking for a mild drop? since it is my daily driver, i want to keep the ride as close to stock as possible.

it just came off as if he was trying to sell me something that i really dont need, just so he can make a few more bucks off of me. i dont want to buy something that i will not use to its full potential.

suggestions/real life experiences are very much welcomed! thanks!

 

I would say no...you don't have to switch over to coilovers. I have Tanabe NF210 on my 05 coupe with a 1 inch drop in the front and .60 drop in the rear and I'm on stock struts (I'll be replacing them this spring). I've learned that with a good spring and strut setup you don't have to install coilovers even if you are going to the track. However you might want to add some front and rear swaybars and a strut tower brace they will make a hell of a difference in you driving.

 

I agree that you don't have to absolutely switch to coilovers. I ran 350z tein s-techs for a year before getting full coilovers only because I wanted to go lower.

 

You don't have to do coilovers, but if you think you might want to drop it more in the future, or feel like you want extra adjustability, you may as well. It's going to be personal preference, there's no right or wrong way. I would never be happy on springs, but I like being able to slam the crap out of my car. Sounds like that's not in the cards for you so it shouldn't be an issue.

In making your decision, the only thing you should be thinking about is what are you very long term goals with the car. Try to meet those early on and the first time out (even if it takes a little longer) so you don't have to take crap apart and swap components over and over again like some of us have.

 

^Good advice.

Coilovers are not necessary but they give you the option to adjust them to your liking, whereas a spring/shock setup is basically stuck like that.

 

This is great advice. The only thing I would add is a lot of us started out with springs/shocks and eventually wanted to go lower and have damper adjustability which led us to get coils eventually. If I could do it all over again I would have gone coils from the start.