Please forgive my ignorance, I love cars but don’t know much about maintenance. We have a 2006 VW GTi (MkV) and unfortunately our commute everyday is full of holes and bumps. We can feel our ride soften and doesn’t feel quite as nice as it once was. I’m a little worried that our stopping distance won’t be as good as it use to be. Neither my wife and I are “racers” so we don’t need track-ready suspension or lowering kits but all the online searches I’ve done seem to be associated with that. Can anyone recommend a trustworthy place or system I could purchase to replace the dampeners? perhaps something a little more heavy duty as we’ll be living in our area a few more years.
Your car is now 7 years old and odds are the struts have degraded. This degradation in ride is incremental as it creeps up on you over time; at least most of the time.
I would recommend just staying with a stock performance, name brand aftermarket strut and/or shock absorber which can be had at any parts house and any reputable shop should be able to handle a job like strut replacement.
Spending a ton of extra money on a high end unit like Bilstein won’t really accomplish much.
I’d go to tirerack.com, they’ll have a good selection of ‘dampers’ (note spelling). I put a set of Boge on my '79 Scirocco, really helped the handling, then put a set of Bilsteins on my '83 GTI, same thing. They list adjustable Konis for your car, you’ll be able to choose your firmness. Or get a set of KYBs for a lot less.
Kyb is an OEM supplier to Toyota. They’re perfectly good shocks. I agree that sticking with OEM replacement shocks is the best route to take. Fancy-Schmancy shocks will cost a lot more and may even give you a ride you don’t like.