[Mike]

What are you planning on doing with the car ? Are you looking for performance or asthetics ? Performance wise , the more you spend the better. The setup I use consists of Koni Sport Yellow's that are adjustable. The set can be found for a very reasonable price , (probably around 600-800 bucks ) and a set of apex springs that drop the car a little over 2 " , i dont have problems with hitting things however im careful about it , no speeding into driveways anymore and plazas etc, also ill avoid potholes speed bumps and etc. The car looks fantastic with this drop and personally i dont think that 2 " is alot, the car works well for ME. IMHO , the stock struts and springs are pretty much garbage. I would consider swapping out for 2" drop H&R race springs, but other than that the apex are fine for now.

Something budget would be basically to get just some lowering springs and a new set of struts and shocks. That way if you just want the car to sit lower and look low , then problem solved.

Probably the best idea is to go with a coilover kit in the front and a normal shock/spring setup in the rear, while keeping in mind to get a spring in the rear that will best suit your intended ride height with the front strut coilover. I say this because the rear of the car really doenst benifit much at all from coilovers infact it re-arranges the suspension setup in the rear in a way it was totally not designed to do, and places load in places in ways that they were not designed to do.

Thats my 2 cents, just remember to keep in mind the end goal of what you want to see happen with your car and take it from there :D