Rodney

That's the most important question you need to ask yourself. If you're just doing mods for the sake of making the car yours, then go with whatever floats your boat, or whatever is the latest group buy or fad here.

If however, you feel that the suspension is too soft for your driving style and road conditions, then go for the suspension. If you like the suspension settings, but want more grip and a little better road feel, bigger wheels and more agressive tires are the way to go. Want more stopping power...big brakes. Want more sound from the car and/or a little more power on the top end, then an exhaust fits the bill (of course, then you need to decide how much of the exhaust to do). Want the car a little more biased to oversteer, a bigger rear sway bar will help you cure that. Feel that you want more power, then a chip is the way to go.

Spend some time getting to know the car and how it performs, then decide what YOU want to change. Not every mod is right for every person. I fell in love with coilovers when I got a ride in an A4 with them (down here in NC), but then I went home and spent some time driving in Boston, and I'm not so sure they'd be a good idea now...one of the reasons I bought the A4 over the 323i was that it handled almost as well, was better behaved at the limit, and had a much more comfortable ride. When I remembered that I decided to stick with the stock sport suspension. On the other hand, my A4 has a tendency to understeer, and I do think a bigger rear sway bar is in order. I also felt the car was underpowered (coming from a VR6 Jetta), and decided to chip it (I was going to wait til the warranty was up, but after a couple of test drives in other chipped cars, that idea went out the window and I got it chipped).

My point is, look at what you use the car for, what you like about it, and what you don't like. Decide what you want to change and think about what negatives those changes may carry with them. Everything is a trade-off.

nick n

Get the car handling right before you make it faster.

Jon C

seems to me I read a lot about mods, mods, mods, and people still smash their cars up left and right, which tells me, as my Porsche driving instructors told me when I was starting out, learn how to drive it at the limit stock before you start modifying. Otherwise you just think you're a better driver than you are, when the car's doing all the work. Pardon me if this doesn't apply to you (ie if you are a trained high performance driver, not just a freeway jockey) but I see lots of evidence of that here.