Eibach Coilovers – Too Expensive?
Price vs Features vs The Competition
This video looks at the Eibach Pro Street S coilovers versus BC Coilovers. I want to see if Eibach coilovers are really too expensive for what you get or are they good value (Time Stamps Below)
Looking on the Car Throttle website we have Eibach coilovers and BC Coilovers.
Coilover Prices
Eibach coilovers are offered for around 1048 GBP & BC Coilovers are available for around 840 GBP
Eibach Pro Street S coilover are 24% more expensive than the BC Coilovers.
Is the price difference justified?
Eibach Coilovers Adjustment
Eibach Pro Street S coilovers are only adjustable for height.
BC Coilovers are adjustable for height and for damping (soft/hard)
How much would BC charge?
Hypothetically speaking, if BC made a coilover kit that had the same range of adjustment as the Eibach, how much would they charge?
First of all, what extra features do BC coilovers have over the Eibach
- Top Mounts, front and rear (adjustable if applicable)
- Independent Bottom Bracket
- Adjustable dampers/shock absorbers
If BC stripped away the top mounts, the independent bottom brackets and made their dampers with a fixed damping rate, how much would they charge?
As a rough guesstimate, I would say the BC coilovers, with the same spec as the Eibach coilovers, would cost around 700GBP.
Like-for-like we will probably be looking at a price difference, for the same spec coilover kit, or around 340GBP. The Eibach coilovers will be around 50% more expensive than the BC.
Why are Eibach so much more expensive?
Rust
Eibach coilovers are stainless steel so they wont rust. BC coilovers are powdercoated/anodised so they will not rust either. No difference here.
Springs
Eibach, along with H&R are arguably the best springs you can buy for a road car or a race car. BC on the other hand have no reputation when it comes to springs. You could argue that the springs used on the Eibach coilovers are of a much higher quality.
How much difference would this make to the price?
I think you could imagine that the Eibach springs could easily be 100GBP more expensive than the springs used by BC
Dampers
Service life
I don’t think there is anything in it. I think both BC dampers and the dampers used by Eibach will last the same amount of time.
Ride quality.
Back in the day UK car magazines used to do back-to-back product tests. When they were comparing coilover kits, if my memory serves me correctly, the coilover kits which had fixed damping were too stiff in comparison to the kits which had adjustable damping.
This is the main downside to coilover kit which have fixed damping, you have to hope that the engineers who designed the kit got the damping rates correct for the roads you drive on, that they suit your driving style and preferences and the suit the use you put them to eg occasional track day.
This is a big ask and the reality is, they are unlikely to suit you perfectly, unlike adjustable dampers which you can change.
In short, adjustable dampers are better than non adjustable.
Damper Valves & Oil
Dampers under hard use. It is possible that the valve technology used by Eibach is better, maybe they do not aerate the damper oil as much as the BC which means they give more consistent performance under hard use, eg track use or bumpy roads.
Maybe the oil used in the Eibach dampers is better quality than the BC.
Looking at all these factors, adjustability, the possibility that the Eibach have better valves and better oil, at best you have to call it a draw, in my opinion the adjustment of the BC outweighs the possibility that the Eibach has better valves and oil.
In short, Eibach dampers have no edge over the BC
TUV Approval
Eibach coilovers are TUV approved which means they have been independently tested to ensure that they do not adversely effect the operation of the car’s suspension ie that they do not lower the car too much and cause fouling of components eg anti roll bars contacting wishbones etc
While I think that both BC and Eibach have no issues when it comes to safety, the TUV approval process does cost Eibach some money. How much it costs per suspension kit I have no idea but if we say at most it costs 50 Euro per kit, it still leaves the BC far ahead on the value front.
Reputation
If you are driving a new premium car such as a BMW M3, it might be frowned upon by your peers if you say you have put the car on BC, whereas if you put the car on Eibach you can imagine the nods of approval.
Not something that effects performance but it could be something that matters to you.
Resale value
If and when you come to selling your car, having Eibach coilovers fitted to your car is probably not going to effect the value of the car negatively but if you have BC you could imagine that it would. How much difference depends on the car and it’s age. If resale value of the car is important to you then this is something to bear in mind.
Selling the kit itself, I imagine that you could probably get more of the purchase cost of the kit back with Eibach coilovers.
Eibach wins on resale value.
Summary – Are Eibach Pro Street S Coilovers Too Expensive?
Looking at all these factors, I would argue that for what you get, the Eibach is too expensive.
The price difference between the two kits is simply too big for the possible superior aspects of the Eibach to overcome.
Better springs do not justify such a big price difference
The chance that the Eibach dampers have better quality valves does not overcome the fact that the BC dampers are adjustable.
If you only care about performance and resale value of the car/coilovers is irrelevant to you, the BC obviously comes out on top.
Time Stamps (Click the time to go to that part of the video)
0:18 Car Throttle Online shop
0:46 BC Coilovers
1:48 Price of hypothetical BC coilovers with same features as Eibach coilovers
2:06 Where could the extra money for Eibach be going?
2:13 Rust
2:37 Springs
2:56 Dampers
3:20 Ride comfort
4:06 Adjustable dampers could be a different story (but Pro Street S not damping adjustable)
4:45 Summary
4:57 Is Eibach expensive? If you want to sell your car with the kit installed, probably worth the money due to not hurting the value of the car (which BC probably would). I’m talking premium cars here, new M3s etc
5:38 Compared the adjustable suspension. You could say Eibach is expensive given what you get for the money
