Am considering in the not too distant future changing the standard suspension set up (have already got jabba RARB) for something a bit lower.

Though not sure whether to go coilover route or the koni fsd and spring route.

1) Apart from looking lower with coilovers will they improve the handling over a standard uprated spring and damper package?

2) With height adjustabilitiy does this change the firmness of the ride or do you need to have a set with adjustable damping rates for this?

3) With coilovers that can be made softer how soft do they go?

I spose my ideal is something I can have softish if required for a long motorway journey if possible???but then nice and form if out for a sporty drive.

i have the eibach springs on the standard shocks and they are good, firmer ride but not painful, lowers the car 25-30mm so looks good to.

However, might want the car lower so thinking of coilovers to lower car 40mm, however doing this requires a metal sump guard to replace the standard plastic one which is another

1) Apart from looking lower with coilovers will they improve the handling over a standard uprated spring and damper package?

Depends on the quality of spring and damper package/coilover package. You get what you pay for in most cases. Also a set that's too firm will actually make handling worse on anything but a perfectly smooth surface and will probably give you back ache!

In an ideal world you need to try out someone elses set up before you buy, but obviously that's not always possible!

2) With height adjustabilitiy does this change the firmness of the ride or do you need to have a set with adjustable damping rates for this?

The ride quality largely depends on the springs. You can buy adjustable dampers (eg. Koni, Spax) or adjustable damping coilover kits but as said, it's the springs that will make the biggest difference to ride quality.

On a coilover kit the spring platform itself moves to lower the car so the spring rate will not be altered when you drop it into the weeds.

The damping adjustment on some adjustable shock absorbers can only be done with the car jacked up too, so it's not a 30 second job.

3) With coilovers that can be made softer how soft do they go?

As above!

My personal choice (I've had quite a few suspension kits over the years) would be for firmer dampers on standard springs for most VAG cars purely from a ride vs handling point for general road use. However most people go for a looks vs ride and so I would recommend a softish slightly lowered spring with Koni adjustable (yellow) shock absorbers. But then again I'm just getting old and have suffered enough suspension kits in the past, some of which have actually spoilt the car ownership completely!

I'm reading lots of good things about the Koni FSD's with standard springs - but on the Awesome GTi site it says 'excluding RS'?

Does anyone have this setup on a vRS and does it work?

I few member now have the fsd/eibach setup. Koni dont list the fsd's on their website for the vrs/ibiza fr/cupra. But members on here seem happy with the setup.

I'm in the same thought as Andy. Better dampers with stock springs.

Koni FSDs seem to be the best choice for a comftable ride with the sportyness thrown in.

However they are the best setup if you are driving the car hard or if you are going on trackdays, Thats where coilovers come in, and thy hae the added benifit of being able to lower the car to where you want it

For the rads round here i would alwase say coilies but it is down to you