KW Street Comfort Coilovers Review

[willni]

After an brief 6 month test period, and not me just forgetting to write down my thoughts it's time for my review of the KW Street Comfort Coilovers!

Have you ever modified suspension before?

No I haven't, for various reasons ranging from I'll bottom out at work and catch the plastic oil pan to a 60bhp faded red 2000 Ford Fiesta will never be cool...

Why did I decide to replace my perfectly capable OEM suspension?

Well after approaching 50k miles and with a rear shock needing replacing I thought to myself, I could replace my rear shock and happily wait for another one to go, or I could be a moron and pay more money to replace the whole lot...so I fetched my finest crayon and signed a cheque for my new suspension!


I just came for the pictures
Original Suspension




Lowered after install




Enough waffle, tell us about the suspension!

So after a lot of reading reviews and test drives in friends cars with different suspensions, such as Bilstein B16's, Racingline Springs and Dampers, KW V3's, I opted to go for KW Street Comforts.

Reasons why:

• As I'm new to changing my own suspension, I wanted to retain as much comfort as possible
• I wanted the option to adjust my suspension for different settings
• I didn't want a big drop, I wanted functionality over form
• I wanted high quality that will last

My honest thoughts

I got the KW Street Comforts at probably a bad time, I got them in at the start of October '25, and was straight into road salt, potholes and cold weather. So I knew that it would likely be a make or break few months and at the time of writing this I am 6 months into ownership, covering a lot of miles on a mixture of surfaces (roads seems too much of a compliment) from motorways, carriageways, B roads to well straight mud and stone and have to say...

Wow

The KW Street Comforts exceeded my expectations, especially when coupled with 18 inch alloys with 225/40 tyres. I have the suspension set at 20mm lowered over standard GTI suspension and the dampers set to a comfortable setting, and I must say

Comfort is subjective!

on 18 inch alloys it is:

• 15% more comfortable than the standard suspension
• Gives greater handling feel
• Less body roll
• Zero difference in feedback from potholes

On my BBS (8.5J ET44 w/235/35R19)

• 5-10% more comfortable than the standard suspension
• Gives greater handling feel
• Less body roll
• 5% more noticeable feedback from potholes

This is quite interesting what if I want to try and hide this from my other half?

I've had a lot of passengers in my car and none of them noticed the suspension was changed, so you'll be safe on that front.

This sounds a bit too good to be true, are you getting commission?

Unfortunately I'm not getting an commission for this post, but the only drawbacks I have with the suspension is:

• I can't clean my wheel arches as well as I used to...pedantic yes, real world advice also yes.
• I have to slow down more for speed bumps.

But seriously I've no criticism of the suspension itself, I do have two items of suspension I am troubleshooting at the minute of suspected front ARB and a worn drop link, but they were present prior to the install of the suspension.

Happy to answer any questions anyone has about the suspension.

[Bluest]

Thanks for taking the time. I'm looking to decide what do when my current 10 year old suspension is ready to be replaced. The OE set-up I feel is pretty good and about right from a comfort perspective, but doesn't feel quite sporty and controlled enough for me on a b-road blast. I don't do track days. The turn-in feels a little lazy, I'd like the steering to be a bit sharper, but that may be down to the Uniroyals the previous owner put on the front. I wouldn't want to do anything that makes it feel less sporty than it does now, ideally I'd like a little improvement without spoiling the ride.

So my question is, do the KW Streetcomforts change the handling sportiness for better or worse? Does the extra comfort come with trade-off would you say? Or is it win/win (which would be ideal for me)

[willni]

So my question is, do the KW Streetcomforts change the handling sportiness for better or worse? Does the extra comfort come with trade-off would you say? Or is it win/win (which would be ideal for me)

As the coilovers are a very adjustable coilover and everyone has different preferences, I have mine set at the heights setting with the softest level of damping, but obviously you can do the completed other way lowest setting and hardest damping and somewhere in between.

So there's plenty of room for adjustment and you can work your way up to find your perfect height and dampening, I personally think even on my settings it's vastly improved the handling, but can be further improved by adjusting the settings, or going further with other suspension component upgrades.

I think there's definitely potential for it to be a win/win situation for the majority of people on this forum, but if you're expecting it to handle like a Lotus or a Porsche, then you'll likely need to go to more sophisticated suspension, with drop-link, control arms, ARB, subframe, polybushings upgrades etc, where there will be a definite detriment to comfort.

In my eyes if you're after OEM+ where you can happily live with it everyday and improve performance then these are likely the coilovers for you.

[Paul70]

Thanks for taking the time. I'm looking to decide what do when my current 10 year old suspension is ready to be replaced. The OE set-up I feel is pretty good and about right from a comfort perspective, but doesn't feel quite sporty and controlled enough for me on a b-road blast. I don't do track days. The turn-in feels a little lazy, I'd like the steering to be a bit sharper, but that may be down to the Uniroyals the previous owner put on the front. I wouldn't want to do anything that makes it feel less sporty than it does now, ideally I'd like a little improvement without spoiling the ride.

So my question is, do the KW Streetcomforts change the handling sportiness for better or worse? Does the extra comfort come with trade-off would you say? Or is it win/win (which would be ideal for me)

No doubt new suspension will improve the driving dynamics but you may want to consider adding more negative camber at the front and getting a full fast road geometry alignment. I was amazed at the difference this made to my car. 034 motorsport sell new ball joints that add around one degree of camber. This change will influence turn in more than changing the suspension.

[MEZZA]

KW have also just brought out a new kit - V3 comfort coilovers/V3 levelling where you can adjust bump and rebound - also allows you to keep stock ride height or even increase slightly - not sure how these compare to Street Comfort ? - there is a youtube video by Awsome Gti with a road test "KW V3 comfort coilovers

[Rudedog]

Thanks willni you've answered many of the questions that were potentially holding me back.

I'm after an OEM+ setup that will hopefully see me for another 60k+ miles and the KW's fit the bill, good maker with a motorsport background - I know from experience that replacing suspension bits can be expensive and using OE parts often ends up costing more than from a top aftermarket brand.

Can I ask did you take the opportunity to renew your top-mounts?  and if so what did you go for?

I'm almost 99% sure I have an issue with my left-front one which has creaked on full left lock at slow speed - when in severalties under it's new car warranty but was never really fixed - part of my reason of upgrading is that by the time I pay to have one or both top-mounts changed then that would be a fairly big chuck of change that could have gone to a completely new setup.

[willni]

@Rudedog definitely a big factor on why I chose to go aftermarket as I've known a good few people that had to replace all 4 shocks around 60k miles!

I did replace my top mounts at the same time, as it just made sense to me to do them. I went for Lemförder (Top Mount P/N 36951 01, Bearings P/N 37555 01 (Available as a combined kit)) as they are a OEM manufacturer for many of the car brands and are the go to for these parts over the likes of Febi Bilstein, only £75 all in as well!

Like yourself my front left creaked on full lock, but upon reflection if I were to go back I'd probably do the drop links at the same time.

EB2019 gave me some good advice, along with his very detailed suspension post which I'd highly recommend to read and I'll likely be following his direction (Link Below)

https://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=290478.0