Originally Posted by DanF

The suggestion to "just cut the stock springs" is a BAD idea! This is a hack solution to lowering a car correctly. Think about the simple physics involved: When you lower a car 1" to 2", you bring the tires, suspension and body parts all closer together. With the stock "soft" springs, the car still thinks it has 4" of travel, so when you hit a dip the springs compress the same. The result? Tires rub, you bottom-out, suspension bottoms-out. Proper coil-over typically give you springs with four times the stiffness of stock springs. When you lower the car 1" to 2", you want to limit the travel to where it would be at the maximum of travel with stock springs so you don't rub or bottom-out. The result is that you get a very stiff ride, but that's the trade-off. The other thing that happens when you "cut stock springs" is that it puts a lot more stress on the "stock" shocks. The shocks get compressed when the car gets lowered and your shocks will compress all the way when you hit a dip and you won't have any more value from the shocks. Proper coil-overs come with correct shorter shocks that have stiffer compress and rebound rates AND they are made to work with less travel so they won't bottom-out. Sorry, but cutting stock shocks is the reason why there are so many hack-job cars driving around. If you can't do the modifications correctly, don't do them!!! And don't fortget that after you lower a car you will need to re-adjust the camber. A 2" lowering will most likely be beyond the limit of the standard alignment process, so one would need to install a camber kit. You can tell the cars that don't have camber kits because the tires are pointed inwards at the top. These are the same cars that most likely just had their stock springs cut to achieve the "look" but without any beneficial purpose.