I am going to soon purchase a brand new Scion xA. I was looking at the site on the "build" section. I saw that there was some suspension upgrades. Is it worth it to get these? Should I just buy an aftermarket one?

If aftermarket is MUCH better than the ones that Scion provides, which is a decent one? I know that suspension upgrades will make the ride more "sporty" but I like that uncomfortable feel (I'm weird? Yes).

I'm super excited to join this community. My current car is a 1999 Ford Escort Zx2. Man that car is such a bother. It has absolutely no pick-up, which makes onramps difficult, and everything about it is so cheap and tacky. When I went to the Toyota dealership today and sat in all 3 Scions, they were pretty nice for the price. I was very very impressed.

Any tips or suggestions would be GREATLY appriciated guys!

Thanks!
-lilman

 

The upgrades from Scion are quality parts. Generally TRD makes excellent products. Myself and many other owners will say, go aftermarket. The reason is simple, price. The accessories offered by Scion generally do not include installation and that is where a lot of the difference in price is going to be. Suspension installations can range anyhere from 150 to 350 bucks depending on the dealer.

If you absolutely want to stick with the TRD parts than I would reccommend getting your accessories from here: Sparks Toyota Scion. Sparks offers all of the Scion accessories at a discounted price, trust me there are some excellent deals in there!

I choose to go with an aftermarket suspension. Primarily because I wanted a custom suspension and I wanted to do all the work myself. I used Tanabe DF210 springs (thats about 2.5-2.75 inches of drop) with the TRD shocks and struts. The rear end was cleaned up with the Progress Tech 22mm Rear Sway. This made for an extremely tight and well balanced suspension. Simply put my xA corners like it's on rails. There was a sacrifice in ride comfort but since I'm the only driving the car and I very rarely have passengers in the car it was worth it.

Here are a few of the top reccommended brands for suspension components:

- Springs -
Tanabe NF210: about 1-1.5 inches drop, good for comfort.
Tanabe DF210: about 2.5-2.75 inches of drop, excellent for looks and performance.

Tein H-Techs: almost Identical to Tanabe NF210s
Tein S-Techs: about 2 inches of drop, slightly higher spring rates (a bit stiffer)
than DF210's.

- Shocks and Struts -
TRD: Best for the money, good performance with any spring package, even stock
springs.
Koni Adjustables: Best Shocks out there for xA and xB, quite a bit more money than
TRD but excellent in performance and ride comfort.

- Rear Sway Bars -
Progress: The most popular 22mm rear sway bar. Built like a rock, excellent
response in the corners.
TRD: TRD just released their 22mm rear sway bar last week, sounds like it is very
comparable to the Progress bar. Still waiting on a few reviews of this one!



There are other brands out there, take a look in the parts secion here at Scionlife for customer reviews and more parts to choose from. :D

 

Thanks for all of the help! I'm going to start researching the brands and models you mentioned.

-Lilman

On rails eh? ^.^ w00t.

 

sway bars, shocks, strut ties, exhaust, intake, all easy sporty installs. I can say that I love all the ones on my car, they make it fun to drive, especially being a manual transmission. Try to do installs yourself or with friends, heck even look up the local Scion oriented club in your area like Scion Evolution, Scinergy, or Scion Image to name a few. Most scion enthusiast groups are friendly people and very knowledgable too. Check out www.xatuner.com it's a new site with a good deal of links to sites with xA parts and info. And lastly, test drive!! Enjoy. Be good to your xA.

 

Psyco - I see you are in San Diego. I'm in Ventura county (Simi Valley), do you have a messenger program? If it's ok I like to be able to talk to people about cars and such. I'm chekcing out the xatuner.com right now.

 

I generally go for aftermarket parts and do the installation work myself. Just picked up a set of 17" rims and I have plans to install Eibach Pro-Kit springs (haven't decided on shocks or struts yet). The only thing I had factory installed was the side-impact-air-bags.

 

you also and tighten up the rear suspension with the trd rear frame brace from the toyota echo and a gt spec front frame brace

 

That will work? I'm going to look that up right now.

 

he has it on his, so yup, it will work.

 

I couldn't find this progress sway bar. Should I go Tein basic's or TRD with Tanabe springs?

 

Here is a link to the Progress bar you are looking for:

Partshippers.com

 

Thanks for the link! That strut looks amazing. Do they make a front strut? I guess I have OCD, I like things to be from the same company >.<.

 

Unfortunately the images shown in the product listing for on Partshippers is juast a generic photo of a front sway bar.

Here is what the Progress Rear Sway really looks like:




I too wish Progress made a front sway bar for the xA/xB but as far as I know there aren't any available yet.

 

Oh that's lame looking. Maybe I will go TRD .

I care too much about cosmetics .

 

Hehe, you will be surprised to know they look exactly the same, but the TRD bar is red instead of gray. Besides the only way you will ever see the sway bar is if you are under the car. It sits so close to the rear torsion beam that you wont notice it there, but you will feel the difference with it on.

 

Do you know if the TRD is sandblasted, painted, or anodized? I think I'm going to anodize all my stuff blue :D.

 

Powder coated if I'm not mistaken, same with the Progress bar.

 

I know somebody that is running 17's with the progress rear sway and Hotckis front sway... killer road course car now but of course she has a RS1.. so that trac/vsc makes life better. She is able to pass BMW's at Portland Intl. Raceway in the curves.. but of course gets smoked when it comes to the straights. Only car I've been in that didn't lean regardless of how hard she yanked on it. Tacked on with a TRD Exhaust and TVM short shift, K&N Typoon Intake and other misc. mods.. the car gets up and runs away from Jetta's all day.

The most impressive thing about that setup that it is still damn confortable to ride in for road trips.

 

I saw those hotckis online and thought about buying them. I'm very happy to hear that her car handles that well. I'm super excited :D.

 

I've been trying to get her on the forums, but she doesn't like the internet besides ordering parts or email... i'll have to get some pictures of her car this spring/summer though or have somebody take pics of us going head to head on the track...

hmm, now that'll be awesome.. track day at Portland...