[RocktimusPryme]

Originally Posted by JC455

TBH, for the average guy wanting some improvement from his A body, a .5" taller upper balljoint, 1-1/4" swaybar/poly mounts, new shocks, and some 1" lowering springs(assuming all the bushings are in good shape) are going to make the car feel like a million bucks! couple it with some good tires front and rear, and new rear shocks, and 80%+ of the owners out there would be super happy with how the car rode/handled... it's the other 15% that wants that super-handling car, and the 5% track junkies that really need to get into revamping every element of their car that are going to be the ones spending thousands/tens of thousands on suspension.

Speaking for myself, because Ive been considering the knockoff arms. The allure is that the factory bushings are such a pain in the A to replace, you may as well buy the new control arms and just install them. Probably buy better tall ball joints as mentioned, but you would do that even with the factory arms.

When you consider all the work that goes in, to simply removing the arms, I really don't think its a big step up in price to just buy the new arms.

I will say that I spent a couple hundred bucks last year to replace my steering parts, get good Bilstein shocks, and a professional alignment. That by itself was night and day in the way the car drives.

I have a question to tack on here. I feel like I read somewhere that one (upper or lower) control arms tubular makes a reasonable difference, while the other makes very little. So if someone wanted to save a little and only buy the top or bottom, which is it.