Strut assembly KONI or Sachs

IMO, Sachs will restore the factory ride characteristics. I always recommend Sachs because they always seem to ride the closest to stock and have had good luck with their replacement parts.

Red is a great upgrade if you're keeping the factory ride height, they ride MUCH better than the factory Bilsteins.

Just purchased a set of front Koni STR.T for my Son's 08 C30 T5 2.0 M66. Bilstein are in the back. Had the resources to upgrade suspension parts in the late 80's and Koni has been the best thus far compared to Bilstein, Gabriel, KYB and Monroe on various makes.

Had an 85' Jetta GLI: installed lowering springs (1/5" front, 1" rear, 40% stiffer? Hor brand? Pretty sure I picked them up from Autotech) and used HD standard struts (coilovers were not available and pretty sure I used Sach's struts).

They make Koni Yellows for the MK1. I loved them on my Corrado SLC. The Koni Yellows for the Corrado SLC were entire struts for the front. I set them right in the middle on stock springs. They were comfortable and it handled as well as my '78 Scirocco on +0 wheels and tires. I like that you could tighten them up if you wanted them stiffer or soften them for a cushy ride. Right in the middle was comfortable on the potholed streets of Hampton Roads but it still cornered like it was on rails.

I also replaced the front and rear struts. Man, what a difference that made in the ride and handling department.

sachs struts with the OEM rubber bushing not Poly is honestly the best feel.

the stock struts were blown out and the car was pogo'ing on large bumps at around 65k mi. Not sure how hard or careless the first owner was but I've never had struts go bad this early but I just replaced with Koni struts and H&R Sport springs. Otherwise, its been running like a champ with all major service kept up

The Str.T is fine for a mild upgrade over OE. I've had them on my car for about 10 years now. I live in Texas, so rust is not an issue. However , if I were doing it all over again, I would spend more for the Koni Sport (Yellow), as I think the Str.T is a touch softer than I would have preferred.

Kyb, bilstien or sachs. Everything else just is crap.