[JazzleSAURUS]

Good lord this thread has taken an impressive downhill spiral lol.

My BRZ runs swift springs on '13 struts, my Forester XT runs ST Coilovers.

The ST Coilovers are less harsh than plenty of strut and spring combos I've ridden on. Why? They are matched appropriately.

What's cheaper? Springs or coils? Springs of course. But add in struts, and there are a few, (ST, KW, FEAL,) coilovers that can be had that are better than many/most strut/spring combos.

If money wasn't a factor, I'd have ST's in the BRZ, but I'm trying to make it a riot to drive as cheap as I can, so I can enjoy it's daily-ability and make my Forester the turbo-toaster rocket ship she deserves to be.

The Forester has 80k daily driven miles on the coilovers and they held up great with one rebuild covered under warranty about 10k miles ago. (One strut started leaking, ST rebuilt all four complimentary to be sure they matched.) She is also autox'd a few times a year, and driven with wreckless abandon on closed courses, (local hillclimb courses.)

I don't think coilovers are a bad choice for daily driving, or the everyman, but I think that low quality coilovers are often worse than stock, and definitely worse than decent strut/spring combos.

People buy because they go low, or they are cheap, or they can adjust 'all teh cambarz'.

Those cars, of course, ride terribly, are uncomfortable, and have suspension related reliability issues.

Both setups have their place in intent for the owner, and their budget.
Pick appropriately.