I know this has all been gone through before, and I know I have written up much the same thing before but coilovers arent the only option, and not always the best. As you have said you're on a budget, springs will be fine. I have been in plenty of cars with standard shocks with superlows and the ride is fine. It can 'smack' every now and then on big bumps but nowhere near as bad as how much you will feel coilovers. The issue is that the standard struts wear a lot quicker because of the much reduced travel and the standard struts are not designed for this.
For everyone comparing the handling of superlows to coilovers, its like apples to oranges. Standard king springs are not designed for performance, they're designed for being the easiest option to lower your car, and keeping as close to standard ride as possible. They are soft springs designed for street driven cars - not race cars. If you want performance you can still get it through spring and shock combos, but you can't expect the springs to be something they're not. If you want performance you need stiffer rate springs, which have to be specially ordered. You can get them through Kings or pretty much any manufacturer of springs and from memory they were 250-300 for the pair, you just have to ask for a custom spring rate and they ask you how stiff you're looking at and what you're going to use them for.
Most of the VW guys who are serious about track work are using spring/shock setups because they can tune them to handle better than coilovers. Going to proper adjustable Koni/Bilstein shocks and custom H&R, Eibach, etc. springs can provide awesome handling. Base level coilovers provide good handling and tuning options - not great. They're good handling for the price, but can also be too harsh for a lot of everyday drivers. If you want fantastic handling options and adjustable height you need to spend 2500 upwards on a set.
Ask yourself what you want from a set, if you want to be able to move the height of your car up and down to where you want it, by all means pay the money for coilovers. If you just want to drop your car for cheap, chuck some king springs or Lovells in it.
