Beginner looking for advice on Mods?

[hcl77]

Hey Guys,

Just picked up my 07 liftback Yaris a few weeks back and I really love it, but there are a few things here and there that I want to do to it to make it my own. I'm not a racer and don't want to get too crazy, but I do have a bunch of questions and figuring it all out is very very confusing to me. This is my daily driver so it needs to be reliable. I don't car to take on anyone on the road/highway. I just want it to look nice and be a little quicker.

With that said I live in a city with a ton of potholes but really like the look of a minimally dropped car with 16s. The one thing I don't want to sacrifice is the ride quality i.e. I don't want to hit a giant pothole and have it going in and out of the shop for repairs nor do I want to get spanked every time I hit a bump. Any thoughts on what might be the right route? I'd really like constructive feedback, because it's hard to understand what all the pros and con's are to coil overs vs. trd springs etc. I just really dislike the body roll when taking corners (even slowly). So if I could get something that would eliminate that problem that'd be great I'm not married to the idea of dropping my ride and know it requires more maintenance. My initial reaction was to get a trd rear sway bar and see how it felt.

2. Again it'd be nice to have a little more performance out of the car. My question is at what point does one need to upgrade the suspension and/or brakes in order to keep up with the performance upgrades? I'm ok with doing the exhaust thing, but could do without the "I want to race" noise. Are there any other light performance mods where I wouldn't need to mess around too much with the suspension/ride height?

3. Does anyone have a body kit on an UNDROPPED ride? I really liked the Kaminari, but was concerned it would look really odd without dropping the ride. Does anyone have any opinion on this or have a pic of their ride (with body kit) that isn't dropped?

Just super confused about the process and would love some step-by-step guide on Tuning. Also if there are any shops that people know of in Pittsburgh I'd be willing to pass any work I do on the ride to them.

Thanks in advance for all constructive feedback.