Unless I am missunderstanding what you are saying, you don't need a kit to lower a 4.4is. Just find a quality Indy shop to loweer it using s gt1

^what he said :)

What is the GT1?

Gt1 is the IBM think pad and bmw's old programming software. Best bet is kW coilovers and delete the whole airride. I have the kw's and the ride is sweet. Not as stiff as Oem but still very good IMO.

True but just to clarify, in case someone doesn't read the whole thread, the ride quality will suffer.

At first it didn't bother me and I didn't notice the difference as much as its not my daily driver. However, after more time, I noticed its more bouncy and just felt a little unsettling when there were a lot of road imperfections.

I originally set my default ride height to the lowest access setting. Now I have it just a bit lower than stock - and I still don't like it at times. I might just set it back to stock, we'll see.

It can still carve corners but I know I lost some of that a little bit.

I've got a 4.6is and since I can't raise it up for winter, my next plan was to lower it for summer. So far, I'm leaning towards KW adjustable front and let the airbags level out the back end but did I hear correctly that I can delete the air suspension completely or is that only an option in other models? I was under the impression I didn't actually have regular coilover suspension in the rear.

Yes, you can delete the air suspension completely (front & rear air or rear air only). I would not leave the rear air and do the KW fronts only - do both if you're gonna do it at all.

Does my vehicle even have front air suspension? I thought there was purely just rear air on my X5. I need to be schooled on suspension options for my vehicle because clearly, I don't know enough about it. I'd imagine there would be a huge wieght saving by deleting the air ride suspension from the rear of my vehicle.

No, I don't believe you have front air but I wanted to make clear that it doesn't matter - you're ABLE to delete whatever air suspension system that you have.

The main point is that if you're changing things out in the front anyways, why would you leave the rear air - especially for those that have air in the front AND rear (not necessarily your X).

Why would you want to lower an SUV anyway?

If you want to really carve corners, get a 911, S2000, NSX, etc. etc.