Looking to improve handling and ride

checkout this massive 700+ page thread and this store for some ideas:
thread: What did you do to ur Gen III Prius today???? | PriusChat
store: HybridPit

see ya in a few days (just kidding... few weeks )

but to be constructive, here's my 2 cents:
springs=$ , coilovers=$$ , air=$$$$

for wheels:
we have 5x100 bolt pattern. check local craigslist listings, post in the above thread for help, and see what other people in this forum are having success with.

Welcome to PriusChat, hope you get the knowledge you seek and become a Prius Modder

 

Full Coil Overs are for the most part, wayyy OverKill for a Prius? Most (Coil Over Kit's) come with Adjustable Camber Plates, so they allow you to run more negative camber than a stock FWD car, which is basically almost none. 3/4of a degree Negative Camber maybe?

Negative Camber tips the top of the tires inwards on the straights and underload helps (cornering, presses the tire flat to the ground for more grip, tire tries to tip up.) The tires want to stand up under load in corners, so the flatter the contact grip, the greater the load, the load the tries can take, the more grip they have.

But the greater the Camber angle the greater the wear on the inside edge of the tires (I think it is) they scrub away the inside of the tire when driving straight. -1 to -1.5 degrees is a reasonable amount of camber to run on a daily driver. More than that will chew tires up like bubble gum.

With Camber plates (a part of coil over kits') you can set the Camber from 0 to -5 degrees negative. The other half of full coilovers is, you can raise and lower the "Ride Height" at will. (With a jack and a wrench) if the car is to low you can raise it, if it is to high you can lower it. Of course if you change the ride height, you change the alignment ... so back to the alignment shop you go! And full coilover kits let you adjust The "jounce and rebound rate on the shock's," ie how fast the shock reacts to a bump and how fast it recover's.

Full Coilovers, are really for a Daily Driver about bragging rights'. Unless you do "Auto Cross, or in a "Prius," downhill Canyon Racing?" If you have all those settings' available and change them without really understanding what you are doing? You can make your car "unstable and undriveable, with the turn of a wrench?" You really, really don't want to go there!

In the "Real World," with a Gen 3, you want the biggest low profile tire that you can fit without rubbing. Bigger front and rear sway bar's. And chassis braces. I think there is one for front under carriage and one for the mid undercarriage? A Strut Tower Brace and KYB Shock's.

And you will want an Eibach Camber Kit. It will allow you to set the front camber on the car to 1 or 1.5 degree negative camber. It replaces, the lower bolt on the front struts with an offset bolt and washer.

And you will want "Drop Springs," depending on brand they drop the car about an inch or more in the front and the rear slightly less. Eibach, H&R and Swift make drop springs for the Prius. And if you change all that stuff ...it will make a difference that you will notice and it won't destroy the ride uh depending on your "tolerance level." It's not gonna be insanely stiff but yeah on a bad road ... you will notice it.

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Though I haven't tried it on my Prius, a beefier anti-sway bar made a big difference on my Volvo.