Relative Ride Qualities

[WlknGenius]

Right now I'm running bilstein sports shocks and bavarian auto springs. As it stands I like the lower and sportier feel of the car and I still find it very driveable.
I was considering the Koni SA and IE stage 3 spring set up I see a lot of people have around here. How will the ride quality compare to my current set up? Is the softest setting on the Konis more drivable than my current set-up? If so, I could just put them on the softest setting for road strips and drive a stiffer shock the rest of the time. Also my girlfriend has to ride in my car a lot, and it's worth money to not have to hear her complain about the ride.

Yes, I've done some forums searching. I didn't quite find the answer I was looking for.

[Paul318iS]

I do not have experience with the konis. But I can say that an adjustable damper should be adjusted one time and one time only, and this adjustment should be to dampen the frequency of your car, not to make the ride more enjoyable.

[1991 318is]

Stiffer!

Keep the girlfriend happy. Your quality of life will be better. If you make that swap the car will ride stiffer for no good reason. It's hundreds of dollars better spent elsewhere if you're not going to track the car. Koni's are only adjustable for rebound and big bucks. Make it look sharp with a good A/C and sound system. As my 20 year old daughter said, "Dad, you need some rims. Those are so 80's!"

[Old'n'Slow]

Even at their softest, Konis aren't "soft". I run mine full soft with the family in the car on long freeway drives, but set the fronts firmer by 1 turn the rest of the time. If there's a crazy hard wind, 2 turns nails the front end down. It just tracks a little better. My springs are H&R Sports. Very nice ride/handling tradeoff. IE3s will lower your car very aggressively and accelerated tire wear caused by the increased neg. camber and toe in the rear will be the result. Of course there's a fix for that. IE sells it. Hope you can weld! More money gone and the car hasn't even won you a trophy yet! Like the man said....make it cool in the Summer, warm in the Winter, sound good and ride nice. Then "you will get some leg tonight, for sure"!