ahh so thats it. Perhaps kyb on the rear and monroe on the front would be interesting.

Interesting! I have seen the "Lock nuts" that appeared smashed. Never gave them too much thought to be honest, so I will try to remember this if it comes up again. As much as I am a DYI person, it has registered with me as time passes that what ever is going on in the shock absorber world, reliability beats the heck out of what it used to be. Shocks at best has a life span that was rarely more than 20,000 miles and then the car gets floaty. Struts seem to go on forever. I have not replaced a shock or a strut on my 94 and it appears to be pretty much fine. The car itself has almost no body flex and it's road manners are more than adequate at 100,000 miles. The same with my Chrysler T&C which is bigger and heavier and should float around if the struts or shocks are bad and it doesn't.
As to stiff rides, my S series Saturn has always been stiff. The Chrysler for example less so, but a change to 17 inch wheels and the appropriate sized tire to match the diameter to the originals ended with a low profile tire, and it does not absorb hardly any road shock. Even my old AMC cars do not get floaty at 50,000 miles. My memory, obviously older than dirt, can remember them bobbing up and down when getting to a stoplight and hardly quitting before the light changed.
Something is actually a whole bunch better these days.
I have changed struts before, I just can not remember now what it was on? I guess I am getting old and having extended senior moments. I just remember dealing with springs were really rather sporty when changing them and I an older spring compressor in my tools. I wonder what I used it on?