(iagree)
Corksport, how about making 2 sets of springs?
One can be an aggressive package with the drop mentioned in the first post (and can be an excuse to sell other suspension mods)
The second can be half that drop for people who still need to drive in the winter or are concerned about strut life.
Eibach does this often and calls one the Pro-kit (less aggressive drop, stock struts) and the Sport-line (lower drop with a suggestion of aftermarket struts)
H & R and Neuspeed (although they only do VW/Audi, Mini, and Honda parts) also have at least 2 choices. H & R has a "Touring" (1.2-1.4" drop) and a "Sport" (1.5-2" drop) spring as well as their Cup Kits which pair the springs with shocks and struts specifically valves and with shortened case lengths.
I love the look shown but would have a bit of concern (since New England/NYC metro roads are a far cry from Vancouver's) over ride quality and accelerated wear on the dampers. On the other hand, I've been driving/tuning VWs for a couple of decades and had a Tiguan with good aftermarket springs, and like many others found that the stock dampers hold up well (at least to 45-50k miles) with a drop below 1.7-1.8". Upon inspection though, they're much beefier than what VW uses on the Passat/Jetta, which the current Tiguan is based on. Maybe the CX-5 units will be fine for most people.
The extreme drop, for me, looks great as I like the idea of staying with the Sport manual's 17" wheel for ride quality as well as keeping the unsprung weight down. Unfortunately Mazda chose a tire size (as well as specifying that awful Geolander tire) that is on the heavy side for anything performance oriented.
I'm also interested in the effect on gas consumption. My Tiguan significantly benefited from lowering on the highway, not only from a handling perspective, but gained roughly 2-3 mpg at 65+; with a tuned ecu I saw 33mpg frequently on a car rated at 26 highway. Although there are a bunch of reasons I'm going with the CX-5 other than gas consumption, I think lowering combined with a free-flowing exhaust and quality air filter (I like BMC, although they're expensive and hard to get in the US) the CX-5 could get close to 40mpg on the highway.
Last edited: