Springs are a waste of time.
In your opinion of course
Like Roh Echt says it's depends entirely on what the op wants.
I've had H&R springs on since 2009 and they have been outstanding in every way. (Even coped round the carousels at the ring)
Unless the OP is gonna spend £500+ on some decent Coilovers (there are so many terrible cheap Coilovers available) I would recommend quality springs like H&Rs everytime.
H&R springs lowered my car great and I've loved em for years.
Now I am preparing my car for trackdays I will be changing to KWv3's
As said it depends what the OP wants
Have a look at my build thread. All the pics on there show my ed30 with H&R springs with standard shocks
http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,67679.0.html
I ran JOMs which could run from almost stock to as low as you can practically run the car (I did 55k in 2 and a half years so more than most) - You can run a car fully wound down on JOM coilovers without damaging anything, and they may be a "cheap terrible" coilover that many would scoff at but not tried... I swapped from Eibach springs to JOMs and the JOMs were more comfortable, and handled better. Although if you fit uprated ARBs expect to start snapping drop link brackets. (in that respect they are poor quality). I'm now on a £3.5k air system and while it does ride better and, imho, even with no front roll bar, handle better, does my air ride handle and ride 25 times the price? No. I feel I am well adjusted to give my opinion because a) I drive my cars hard when the mood suits me and b) I've had many suspension systems on the SAME CAR.
But the point is that coilovers are basically adjustable lowering springs. There is no reason why someone would buy lowering springs over coilovers other than the fact they "think" coilovers are really uncomfortable (because apparently they all are!!
) without trying it for themselves. Most people who fit springs eventually want to put coilovers on.
Are there cheap coilovers? Yes.
Are these cheap coilovers terrible? No.
Are APs, KWs and what not better (in terms of ultimate performance, build quality)? Yes.
Are they 3-10 times better (vs price?) No.
Take your pick.