Ok so I have the Tanabe Sustec Tower Bar and Progress Rear Sway Bar installed on my 2017 fit exl now. I can give a quick impression about how they perform.







I installed the Tanabe Sustec Tower Bar first and drove about 2 days.
I immediately feel the improvement of handling. Turn corner the car stay flat, much more stable. I am not talking about aggressive driving. Just everyday city trip. You can feel the improvement even under very slow tuning. I have to say for $130, this thing is great.

And then I installed the progress rear sway bar, and have been driving for two days now. I do not know. Seems there is no further improvement under normal driving condition. I am not sure if you install the rear sway bar first, you can feel the improvement. but I install Tanabe Sustec Tower Bar first and then the sway bar. It seems the sway bar does not add anything more. I assume if you driving very aggressively during corner, you might feel the improvement. But I have not have any chance to do it.

By the way I did not install them on my own. I let a local shop install for me.

So my suggestion is just get the Tanabe Sustec Tower Bar. It is only $130. The sway bar cost more.

 

I have both of these on the way, but only difference im lowered and i think the feel will be a lot more drastic then stock suspension height. will report also once I get those installed and put in some seat time.

 

Personally, I'd think you'd receive way more bang for the buck with a rear sway bar. The bigger rear bar will help eliminate the massive understeer inherent to FWD cars, If you push the car the slightest bit. Personally, I wouldn't even consider buying a strut tower bar before doing other suspension mods first

 

really? seems like the opposite but okay.. STB's on a stock car usually has no noticeable benefit unless you're like driving over a
steep ramp on an angle or something dramatic.

 

Maybe if I install the rear sway bar first, I will notice the improvement first. Since the Tanabe Sustec Tower Bar arrived earier, I install that first. Today I drive some highway, I do feel highway cornering is more stable. Overall I just want the simplest and easiest way to improve handling, and these two items certainly did the job well. I never drive mazda 3, I wonder how this fit compare to the best handling non performance car.

 

I agree ....am very pleased with the Progress rear bar, can definitely tell it's there, although my driving often consists of a lot of hilly, twisty back county roads. Would likely be worthless to someone who spends their time living/driving in a large gridlocked city.

 

I autocross a different car in a stock or street class. If you count the original! I have 5 rear sway bars. I can't notice any difference between them driving it on the street. Racing it is a different story.

I'm not saying you're not feeling a difference, but I'd bet some of it is Hawthorn effect just from making changes?

 

I live pretty close to The Tail of The Dragon ... the rear sway bar does make a difference round here

 

I have both. I put the rear sway bar on first and immediately could tell the difference. The front tower bar tightened up the steering and stiffened the front end. Both are worth it, plus it's more fun!
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