the KYB's aren't bad at all. They were a little bouncy for the first few miles and then settled in nicely. With a lowered car they were better than stock. I thought they were fine but still was getting some complaints from my female passengers. I can probably give you a better comparison after comparing them to Koni's which everyone seems to think are the ultimate shock for a Crossfire. I did find out that Koni sells the same shock for the SLK and Crossfire, while Bilstein sells different shocks for each car and the Crossfire version has much stiffer rebound. I would love to know how the Bilstein's perform but I have been the guinea pig more than my fair share of the time (Anza muffler, KYB, V8 conversion, Brembo/MB calipers). I will soon be the guinea pig for a supercharger kit where all the programing is done in the stock ECU with no piggy back tuning system. I was soooo close to buying the Bilstein's, but couldn't figure out if the SLK or Crossfire ones would give me the better ride. I posted asking for help with this decision and didn't get any answers, so I went for the Koni.