I read your post and I wanted to share some information with you that might save you some money and time. This isn't MY OC; Unabomber over at NASIOC wrote this up (I'm a Subaru guy, just here to get to know Cruze's to maintain my GF's car). I'm sharing it with you because I feel it is applicable to any vehicle as much as it's applicable to WRX's/STi's.
"Coilovers are the “best” suspension mod in that the struts are designed to work with the springs. This can be a misnomer though, as many people will then adjust their coilovers for appearance’s sake. Using this logic, people tend to think
coilovers are a better route to go. The flaw in this logic is that while they are matched components, they are only matched within specific design parameters. You may adjust them outside those parameters, compressing the spring to get the look you want, and at the same time overpower the strut’s design capabilities leading to a drastic decrease in strut life. While you can use coilovers as an appearance mod, springs are a more cost effective option."
^ Don't want you to buy any coilovers and not be aware of this fact. (Kindly tell me to **** off if you are already aware of this
)
"There are some negative aspects of coilovers. Most have a wear cycle. Unlike traditional
struts that will wear for 60k or more miles, most
coilovers have a rebuild cycle where you send them in to your Vendor or Manufacturer for rebuilding. This may give some people pause if they think that coilovers are a “permanent” suspension solution. As well, depending on the manufacturer’s design, adjustments can be a real pain to perform. Consider that you might have to do the following:
a. Jack up car
b. Remove
tire
c. Adjust coilover
d. Replace tire
e. Lower vehicle
This can be repeated numerous times for each wheel and for each corner which can be a great source of frustration. This isn’t to say that there aren’t people out there who live for this type of suspension interface, but it serves as a warning to people who think coilovers are 100% bolt on, plug and play parts. It should also be a warning to those who think that going from a slammed look to a normal look is a 10 minute job."
^ I want you to realize what you're getting into if you go with coilovers.
"There are two types of people who want to make suspension changes:
a. People who want to improve their car’s appearance.
b. People who want to improve their car’s handling ability.
The first approach is to accurately and honestly categorize yourself. This is the hardest step of the process and both types will be discussed in detail.
Appearance People: Congratulations on your choice, as there is nothing wrong with your decision. In order to help you make intelligent decisions, here are some generalizations to keep in mind:
Appearance people may be further sub-categorized by:
a. People who want to lower their vehicle a little to improve the looks and even out the
wheel gap.
b. People who want to lower their vehicle a lot to remove most of the wheel gap and to have a 100% even wheel gap front to back."
I think you should get a realistic idea of what your goals are and do a little more research before defaulting to "coilovers next I guess". Unabomber then goes into more details about how to approach each category/subcategory; though it's fairly specific to Subaru so I'm not going to quote that section of this post here. I will however provide a link to his Spring/Strut/Coilover FAQ that I have pulled these quotes from. A lot of his information is great for owners of any make/model and another good chunk of it is specific to Subarus.
Spring/Strut/Coilover FAQ: Read if you are thinking of buying them! - NASIOC
^ that's the Spring/Strut/Coilover FAQ
Unabomber's Manifesto - NASIOC
^ that's all of his FAQ's compiled in one location.
Again, some of the information can be specific to Subaru's but their is a WEALTH of knowledge about vehicles, how they operate, and how to get more performance out of them. I will steal a common expression he used in the post "Step a: Tighten the nut behind the wheel." I have shared the links to this knowledge so you can tighten yourself by soaking up all the info you can find on the wonderful interwebs before spending that hard earned cash of yours. Cheers!
