Pedders Coilover Kits

[jonosx]

I've lost count of the amount of these kits we have removed from cars due to the owners being unhappy with them.

Save a bit more and go with a reputable brand .

[project.r.racing]

what makes the customer unhappy?

[KevGoat]

I've lost count of the amount of these kits we have removed from cars due to the owners being unhappy with them.

On that basis, I'm just wondering if that experience/advice would also carry over to the sister BC's?

Save a bit more and go with a reputable brand

Only trouble is, that such a statement goes for whatever price range one is looking There is always something better for a few dollars more ......

Would you by any chance be suggesting that Pedders is not reputable? Pedders have not been around as long as they have been, with a very large and very satisfied customer base, by being non reputable or by selling unreliable, second rate products.

From my personal point of view, over my many years, I've known a great deal of people who have had a lot of annoying and very expensive problems with their Bilsteins and Koni shocks (and other name brands) and been pretty p'd off after spending so much on their kits, especially after finding out they often had to wait long periods for repairs or had to freight them elsewhere for repairs! The cost of those repairs has been quite ridiculous. So called lifetime warranties have small print escape clauses as they have often found out. Yet so often these same people who have had continuous problems with their expensive "Name brand" products, knock the people who use places like Pedders or who purchase ebay products!!

Many other people I've known, who have ignored all the "nay sayers", have happily used Pedders for their many and varied cars and they all remain very happy with the products and service and have also experienced very few problems by comparison. Plus for these people, if any issue has occurred, they have received excellent, timely and local service (even when away from home) at much more reasonable prices!

Bilstein/Koni and other "brand names" are always thrown around as what one should buy, yet I've seen so many (expensive) issues with these brands over the years that, although I also tend to be drawn to them first purely on reputation, I've become quite reluctant these days to spend the big $$$ on them.

[OurCognitiveSurplus]

I tend to agree with Kev. I like my Ohlins and went up-market on the basis of 'buy once, buy right'.

When I get an NC or and ND or an 86 I'll get coilvers again, but I'm not sure I'll fork out for Ohlins again.

[Apu]

This is like the number of people who insist they can tell the difference between bottled and filtered tap water...or insist that their gold plated connectors on their audio system make such a huge difference.

Diminishing returns I think, and its a question of what is realistic to expect for a price.

[zephyrus17]

I got my HSD HR coilovers for around $1400. Sure, it's an 'unproven setup' and sometimes I wonder what I was thinking at the time, but the end result was some pretty good shock and I'm pretty happy with it. Sure, the itch comes and I've thought, "maybe I will get some Ohlins", but the sanity comes back and it's like Apu says, spent that much more $ for something I'm not sure about? Might as well put that money somewhere else!

[OurCognitiveSurplus]

This is like the number of people who insist they can tell the difference between bottled and filtered tap water...or insist that their gold plated connectors on their audio system make such a huge difference.

Diminishing returns I think, and its a question of what is realistic to expect for a price.

The interesting thing about the 'super heavy duty gold plate de-ionised speaker cable' is that doing a double blind test is pretty easy. Only takes a few minutes to re-cable a 5.1 surround sound system. Can an audiophile pick the difference? Never. Never ever. It's 100% snake oil, and snake oil that is sold by reputable salespeople for huge prices.

Would be interesting to set up two stock MX5s with a different set of coilovers in each and have an experianced driver drive them back-to-back. I wouldn't be that surprised if Yellowspeed came out just as good as Ohlins.

[Apu]

On a hard blast around the track...probably not a significant difference.

I suspect where the Ohlins will shine is in the day to day drive over uneven surfaces. I've been in a consumer review with another leading brand German suspension manufacturer, and even they admitted Ohlins was the standard.

From my point of view, I find it hard to spend $3-4K on suspension for a car that I paid $11K. I'd rather spend $1K on suspension, and the rest of it on a bunch of other go-fast bits.

[plohl]

Having dríven 2 NA's with both ohlins and yellowspeeds back to back, I can comfortably say the yellowspeeds are farrking rubbish. The difference in ride quality was noticed at the first bump. To clarify, both were running the same spring rates.

Comparing my Ohlins to the koni's I had previously on a hard packed dirt track the difference is was easily noticed.

You get what you pay for - Suspension is no exception.

Apu - Once you start going faster, the variations in performance will be come more noticeable.

[Apu]

Can't comment on MX5s but on my Integra, the ride improves with speed.

[plohl]

Generally the ride of a car will improve with speed to an extent. For example, driving over a cattle grid, that faster you go, the smooth the ride - but if you hit it too fast, it could upset the car too much that the driver loses control. There are a number of factors controlling this; spring rate, dampening, suspension geometry, weight, tyres... the list goes on.

Just because you ride improves with speed, isn't inductive of all suspension systems or how they react under the same conditions.

The faster you are going, the better the suspension is needed and the more a good driver will notice the difference between a good system and an average one.

[OurCognitiveSurplus]

You get what you pay for - Suspension is no exception.

I'd put this the other way around. Often what you get has no relationship to the price (ever drunk a bottle of that 'Evian' water!?!). I'm happy if suspension is an exception. I'm no where near enough of an expert to provide a sensible comment - beyond saying that I do my like Ohlins on the public roads. On the track, I don't feel I'm really any quicker than I was on stock suspension.

[plohl]

Put your stock suspension back in for your next track day and let us know how it goes

[Apu]

I'd suggest pitting a Yellowspeed car against one with Ohlins. I'd be surprised if the extra couple of thousand dollars yielded any gain in lap time.

[gussy]

$1600 from Pedders? Tell 'em they're dreaming.

I imported a set of Meister R coilovers from England - the UK guys love them. They cost around $950 landed and I was absolutely delighted with them.