Bilstein Sport Shocks + H&R Sport Springs & H&R Trak Wheel Spacers

Upgrading the suspension on this car was a must. The stock springs are terribly high and break the entire look of the car giving it an air of some cheap Asian econo-box. The reason as to why only the North American MkVs are so jacked up is matter of much controversy. Most people would agree that in order to qualify for such high impact ratings, the U.S. specific models had to be somehow raised to compensate for the average bumper height of all other vehicles on the road in this country, mainly SUVs and pick-up trucks. And while the GLI specific springs are different from those found in all other Jettas, the ride height remains hideously the same. I decided to go with a matched spring/shock combination rather than coilovers or simply springs because I found it to be the best compromise of both of these options. On one hand, colovers would be overkill for a car that would rarely see the type of track driving that would take advantage of the investment to the fullest. On the other hand I am a big proponent of doing things right the first time; therefore, I decided against using aftermarket springs on the stock shocks since I doubt they would be valved sufficiently to handle the new compression rates (perhaps with less aggressive springs, if there is such a thing).

My spring choice was H&R Sport Springs. After researching the multiple aftermarket brands and rates out at this time, I decided on these because they provide a relatively conservative drop, while still retaining good shock travel so carrying a loaded car (passengers + cargo) would not cause rubbing issues, yet they still provide sufficient amount of lowering to be a true sport spring. These are less conservative than other brands such as Eibach but still not as aggressive as their Race counterparts. I went with Bilstein as my shock option because it is well known that they are slightly stiffer than other brands such as Koni and provide excellent valving, comfort and handling. It also has integrated bumpstops, so the whole “cut-reuse-delete” debate was out the window instantly. I consider Bilstein to be the world leader in aftermarket shocks, period, so I may be a bit biased in that regard. The instalation was performed by Fine Tuning Performance in Seattle.

Overall, handling is very much improved over the stock setup. It is much more responsive and sensitive now. The best way I can describe it is as it had been refined ten times over. The car is not bouncy at all but it perfectly stiff and planted, yet comfortable and cushioned just enough. There is barely any nose dive under hard braking conditions and hard cornering really make this setup shine to the fullest. It has put several grins on my face already. If I could define the perfect sport suspension setup, this would have to be it.

As stated earlier, handling and performance were not the only things that were improved from this modification; the car looks 100 times better than before. Once this car is brought to an appropriate height, what was once akward lines and ugly wheel gaps are now agressive features and flush fenders. You can suddenly get a much better idea of the design of the vehicle as a whole and everything starts looking much more proportionate and even.

I also added a 12mm spacer to each of the rear wheels since the wider rear body pannels make the wheels appear a tad sunken into the wheel wells. This also helped quite a bit to bring the whole package together and give the car a much more sporty look and better handling. Overall I am quite pleased with this suspension upgrade. I would recommend it to anyone that wants to retain functionality of the car to carry passengers and cargo without compromising the integrity of the car but want to increase handling dramatically and also get rid of the hideous jacked up look these cars have from factory.