The marketing literature for the 40th mentions something about these as being "specially tuned" Bilsteins (or something like that phrase.) I'm not sure what that means but it seems to indicate that they aren't just OEMs.

 

and all 3 have a diffrent interior (unique)

 

When I say OEMs I mean that what Bilstien and other manufactures supply to an automotive manufacture. That makes them Original Equipment Manufactured or OEM. Tuned or valved different or what ever, they still are OEM.

So what Bilstien or KYB sends off to Mazda for Mazda to drop into the car, are designed to be $25 (cost) shocks, and do not have the same quality or often even the same Rod, valving or even tube size as what you buy when you go to your local speed shop and order a set a of $100 (each) Bilstiens for your car.

For example, lets use my Tacoma with TRD off road package as an example (since I have the two different shocks in front of me this second). That package includes factory installed (or OEM) Bilstiens. Looking at the rear OEM Bilstien, I have one that is leaking and uses a 5/8 rod size with a 1.2 dia tube size.

Now comparing that too the aftermarket Bilstien that is purchased from my local speed shop.

Both are Yellow with a blue boot, both say heavy duty on them, both have a nice Bilstien label on them, but the aftermarket has a 3/4 inch Rod, and a 2.5 inch tube and a lifetime warranty (unlike the OEM that has a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty.

Hmmm, the OEM is worn out at 30,000 miles and leaking. Yet the aftermarket with 2 times the miles is fine, infact you would be hard pressed to notice a change between a brand new one and the aftermarket one with 60,000K miles on it.

Now I am sure that someone will say that our Mazda's are different, and I am comparing a Toyota's shocks, but that is simply because I don't have a set of Mazda OEM bilstiens to measure in front of me to compare. But if you did, you would see the difference between the Mazda OEM Bilstien and a real Bilstien.

So just because you are buying a car with Factory Bilstiens, or Factory Tokicos does not mean that you are getting a quality shock... it means you are getting Bilstiens cheap *** OEM shock that is designed to last 36K miles and Bilstien would never sell such a cheap, short term shock to a consumer, so don't have the confusion that you are really getting the same shock. Yes they are a step up from the OEM KYB that comes on the other models, but they still are not in even the same league as what you would buy, when you get an aftermarket Bilstien.

 

Yeah, but the OP was asking about the suspension.

 

Just to add to this, the NC OEM "sport" Bilsteins are probably worse from a performance standpoint than their standard model dampers. If you think the RX-8 is underdamped, wait until you try a NC!

 

Ah. Gotcha now. Hmmm. Makes me wonder what Mazda considers "tuning" the shock. Heck, that could be just about anything.

 

well (and LionZoo's comments may suggest otherwise), I am sure that the Bilstiens or Tokicos that are the special shocks are better than the $15 cost standard shock.

Just not in the same ballpark as you may buy in the aftermarket.