So I have an 00 that doesn't need new struts now, but may in the next 20-30k miles. It has (as far as I know) the factory springs on it and some aftermarket struts the previous owner put on it at around 100k miles. By aftermarket i mean something like monroe or el cheapo pep boys brand. Car has 171k on it now. My question is this...after doing some searching and thread reading it seems that the factory spring rate for a stock SE is actually stiffer than most of the aftermarket lowering springs....is this true? If I don't care about lowering it and care more about bang for buck handling.....would some decent tokico blues and the factory springs be a good move? Do the original springs last the life of the car?

 

Yes they would be a good combo; blues are definitely a nice shock (as are the KYB excel-G, formerly GR2).

I've got 151k on our 00' SE with some excel G's and I digg em. I've had blues on other cars and dugg them as well. Bang for buck handling (if you like how the car rides with stock springs, yes the SE springs are a bit stiffer) would be best spent on front strut tower bar and rear sway bar assuming your shocks/tie rods/ball joints/end links and all that are in good shape.