VW Jetta (Mk.4) Sport Suspension?

Can anyone suggest a good, affordable sport suspension package for a 2002 VW Jetta?

The car is a base model 2.0L GL that we service, and the car's owner wants to have my shop work the suspension over. The car is a daily driver, so it has to ride acceptably for the street. He's looking for a firmer ride, better steering feel and a little less understeer. He says he may autocross it once or twice a year.

Whatever we do, it's got to be budget friendly (up to $2000 or so), so no $4000 coil over suspension packages or anything really radical. He's running 17" wheels that he would like to keep.

Anyone have any experience with these cars?

one of my buddies got a tein kit for his mk4 tdi yetti, i vaguely remember it having been high school budget friendly

Shine Real Street

http://www.kermatdi.com/servlet/-strse-79/A4-Shine-Racing-Real/Detail

Arguably not the best set-up out there, but pretty good. Of course, if he's looking for a "slammed" set-up, then this won't do that... on most cars, the result is actually taller than stock.

I'm sure he doesn't want a "slammed" suspension. The car is his only transportation & it snows here in the winter.

Koni 1150 5083.

http://www.soloperformance.com/Koni-1150-5083_p_410.html

/thread.

I just got a set of these used for less than a quarter of the cost new... 8,000 miles on them.

http://www.esetuning.com/FK-Automotive-Sport-Edition-Plus-Coilovers-p/fkptvw73.htm

The Shine Racing Real Street kit, so far, looks like the suspension he wants. Reasonable ride, not too low, better turn-in, less understeer, etc.

Along those same lines, does anybody have any experience with Neuspeed "SofSport" springs? They claim to do the same thing as the Shine Racing kit.

VWVortex has some very good information on suspensions for the MKIV. In particular there is a long thread about geometry and the impact of lowering the vehicle[1]; in summary, it is generally not the way to make a MKIV handle well, at least without doing other work first. You can also run into axle/CV-related issues.

I guess I won't claim to have a huge amount of experience, but I run the Shine setup, and I feel like it works quite nicely in my GLI daily driver/HPDE toy. Everyone comments on how high the car looks, but after they ride with me, they also comment on how planted and solid it feels around the track.

robert

[1] MKIV Suspension Thread

Thanks everybody.

Shine Racing Real Street it is.