« Reply #7 on: 08 September 2010, 16:27 »
Not so long ago coilovers (which is a bit of a misnomer anyway) were introduced for the high end of suspension tuning (ie. expensive) primarily for track day use. Hence the ability to adjust ride height and daming characteristics.
Think about it though, how many people have easy access to garage ramps? You can't just walk out in the morning and decide you're going to crank up or wind down the ride height before the commute to work. So they're a little pointless to the average person who've been sucked in by the internet know it alls and glossy car mags.
If you want to lower and stiffen the car slightly for everyday road use only do it the old fashioned way which is cheaper and doesn't involve a back breaking ride quality or your adjustment mechanisms filling up with road crap and thus rendered useless anyway.
All you need are some good quality lowering springs and some matching uprated gas dampers. Some will ride better than others so the best advice I can give is look at the mk5 forums to see which come the most highly recommended being as the suspension systems are so similar (but not identical).
I've had loads of different suspension systems on Golfs and SEATs over the years but never found one I was 100% happy with. In fact I think the mk5 and mk6 Golf GTIs have one of the best ride/handling balances out there straight out of the box and the suspension doesn't to my eyes look too high.
If it were my money I'd just get some uprated dampers and leave the standard springs on there. However if I was running 19'' wheels maybe the suspension would need a bit of a visual drop so I'd go for some Bilstein dampers coupled with Eibach 25mm springs.
But that's just my preference as I'm old and fussy about such things.

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