Shock absorbers KONI or GABRIEL

After almost two months and driving 4000 kilometers on varying quality mountain roads, I think I made a good decision when opting for the Koni Special Actives for my 2006 Mazda3. I expected them to be a bit softer, as they are stiffer than the Koni FSD. They are not uncomfortably stiff, shielding people inside the car from harsh roads and speed bumps. The car feels really stable. Summarizing my impressions so far: reduced high frequency noises and jolts, reduced body roll and pitch, increased stability, the car feels more composed even in extreme situations, and feels more premium. The faster I go on bad roads, the smoother it feels.

I did koni inserts with epic engineering springs on my saabauri before I converted to sti suspension and ohlins fp struts. The konis felt great.

You will probably find what you're after just entirely from upgrading shock absorbers. There are stock height options from Koni and Bilstein at least (and plenty of others, I haven't dug too far into it). It will improve the ride as a lot of the poor ride quality standard is in the shock absorbers and how they're set up, not the spring rate being too soft.

I'm running Vogtland 55mm drop springs on Koni Orange STR.T shocks (daily driver) and the setup has ~50K miles on it thus far (OEM had 80K miles).

Just got these installed on my 2023 M3 RWD (using stock springs, no other modifications), and so far very impressed. Basically experiencing all the benefits already mentioned on this thread. Absolutely worth the $$, labor was more expensive than the shocks themselves, but again totally worth it ????

I recommend H&R Sport Springs 20 mm lift, and Koni Heavy Track adjustable hydraulic shock absorbers (no gas).

This combination reduces body roll and sway enormously. It feels tight and sporty around the urban jungle, although sometimes I feel the springs are too stiff when there is no load in the back.

Off the pavement, this combination provides a brilliant ride. It soaks up corrugations, ruts, potholes and rough surfaces really well. I'd describe the ride as plush but firm, extremely comfortable even while taking a lot of punishment. And I never feel any loss of control even when pushing it hard on the worst dirt surfaces. The spring rates and the shocks on a light adjustment (1/2 turn or 20%) are ideal for gravel track bashing.

If you don't need a suspension lift then avoid it, or minimise it, which is what I did.

This month, I installed Koni STR.T shocks... The handling is already way better than factory, just by adding more damping over the Euro Tuned shocks.

I used after market for shocks (Koni STR.T), and that went well.

For years I used Gabriel brand shocks on my pickup trucks. Couldn’t tell the difference between them and Monroe shocks.

Gabriel shock absorbers are absolute shit.