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i purchased a 2003 civic ex sedan. it has nighthawk black paint job and all the bells and whistles comfort wise i wanted, but the car is just sloooowwww. this is the reason i tend to drive my other car, a 2000 impala, and let my wife drive the new honda. is the whole fascination with civics being fun to drive and mod just because thier reliable and affordable. so let me know is my honda destined to be just a grocery getter. if you know of any affordable performance upgrades i can make to my sloow civic to make it more fun to drive please let me know. i don't want to get new rims, a spoiler, a new exhaust pipe, and still have this slow car.

 
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get TURBOOOOOOO

 
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Ever heard of a test drive? Yeah. Be sure to get one of those before you pay for a car. If you did take it for a spin, then you have no reason to complain. It's not like it magically lose 75% power after you drive it off the lot.

Damn whiners.

 
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Its a civic. What do you expect? FYI all basic bolt-ons do not give you much performance at all. If you really want to make it fast, boost it.

 
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A turbo kit would add considerable hp but you could do a k20 swap and turbo that...that would be a sick machine. A Zex or Nos system ok but who wants to spray everytime they get on the freeway? That's why a swap or turbo would be sick.

 
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^^^^^^^Thats a lot of money too.

 
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man, you guys are cynical, i purchased a civic for its reliability and excellent resale value. i didn't purchase a sub compact car for its 1/4 speed. frankly that is a very trivial part of a $20000 purchase. i made the post for some tips on upgrading my car, if it is cost effective.

 
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my last post was directed toward you primarily, don't want to start a flame war especially when im a noob to this forum

 
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Well you could get a I/H/E But you won't get much gains.

 
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Try driving around with a full body kit, neons, a system, and lots of sound deadening. Now that's slow. But I don't complain-why? because my car looks awesome and I don't go around racing. I think my car is fast enough already.

But if you have to have more speed, turbo is the only way to go: SFpower!

 
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To answer you question in one word. NO

There isn't a simple cheap way to make the car fast. It was intended to get you from point A to point B while using minimal gas while still looking good. Your impala may be faster..but I bet the gas milage on the civic is better. This was Hondas intention. We have all been struggeling to make the car faster. But without spending $$$ and voiding your warranty your not going to make it quick. Also remember that around a corner..you shouldn't have to slow down as much as you would in your impala. Taking turns at speed is a great rush (for me at least) and way more fun than beating the escort station wagon from a stoplight. Have fun and enjoy the car. My advice for next time you buy a compact car....buy the stick shift. There is a huge difference acceleration wise (not that sticks are rockets..but noticably faster)

 
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Change it for a Manual one.

 
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i wanted a civic as our new car, i assume anybody who reads this is already a civic owner so the advantages of the car i don't need to list, i wanted a ex coupe with an manual , but my wife and better judgement wanted a sedan with an auto. we went with the auto and sedan. to be honest i like the auto for sitting in traffic , and the four doors but my only complaint is the sleep inducing acceleration.

i realize for this price i will not find a high performance sports sedan. i should have clarified in my original post. i am not looking for street racing performance but more like having fun on the way to white hen pantry to get milk performance. the car has 127hp stock so i am looking for another 10-20 hp. does upgrading the intake, and exhaust with a silencer give you noticeable performance upgrade?

 
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you could have gotten a neon :-D


anyhow, you shouldnt have listen to your wife... atleast not about the automatic. the sedan is fine, but an automatic kills(in my opinion) the fun of a civic.

but if ou want a faster ride...you will either need to get a better engine, or slap a turbo in it

 
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Not really. The usual bolt on mods provide very little gains on this engine. As for a performance car at or around $20,000....I would have suggested the mazdaspeed protoge. Had I done my homework before buying (and hadn't got such a sweet sweet deal on my civic) that's what I would be driving now. An Intake, header, and exhaist will help a little. But not the 10-20 HP your hoping for. Good luck.

 
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for 10-20hp would you be willing to spend $1,000-1,500?

some simple mods for you to get this...maybe...

Cold air intake
cat-back exhaust system
Header(get rid of stock catalytic converter, restrictive, get a high flow just be willing that if you live in an area that does Smog tests during inspections you might have to budge on that)
ground wires(ask around, some members have gotten good grounding points adding about 3hp for $100)
Cam gears(get them tuned or you wasted your money)
camshafts (www.dh-racing.com has them)
VAFC(heard about some gains here)

 
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my civic does have some pep when i rev it up to about 3000 rpm and shift into drive, but i don't do that much for fear of dropping my tranny. does anybody know what the rpm level is where you are starting to really risk hurting your drive train?

 
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NEVER neutral drop your auto. What i mean is never put the gear into N gear...rev it then drop it down to D4...that will hit your auto tranny even at lower rpms! Did you break in your car yet? Don't tell me you have less than 1000miles on your civic.

 
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I wish someone would dyno test one of our D17 Civics as the mods are added just to give us a rough estimate on how much hp we're actually gaining with our 'almost useless' mods.

 
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If you pay for the dyno runs I'll give you HP numbers after every single mod I do.

 
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Low baller...

 
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Fine...you go dyno your car to get us all HP number per mod. High baller.

 
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now...why the hell will anyone do this? The money he pays you should go towards the dynos for his own car.

 
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I don't expect him to do that Einstien. He wanted dyno runs for all the mods...great idea. But lets be honest...most of us don't have the $$ to do that. not sure if you were being sarcastic or not. Sometimes you just can't tell.

 
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You could always go with a low shot of nitrous for cheap. A stock civic can easily handle that.

 
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Forget the straight line. It'll never happen.
Put $600 into a set of Konis (you can keep the factory springs)
put $400 into some better tires
$100 into an RSX rear sway bar

Then take the long way to the grocery store.

You will never make it fast in a straight line. Making it go fast left and right, is a whole different story.

 
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I'm with boilermaker here, Why is it that when ever some one says that they want to make their civic faster or more fun to drive every one else assumes that they need/wannt more HP??? Well if you set the car up so that you dont need to slow down for the corners then you don't need HP....... See I don't drive the 1/4 mile to work. So pure acceleration dosn't thrill or impress me much. I take the twisty roads to work.

 
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^^^^agreed....just watch initial d and you mightbe amazed..

 
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where can i get Konis?what are they exactly (new to this stuff)

 
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Konis are shock absorbers. You can get them from a lot of diffrent places. I would reccomend Tornactive.com or Dezod.com. They are both members of this site and both have great customer service skills. Tornactive gives a discount for 7thgen members. Not sure if Dezod does as well. If I were you I would buy some good sticky tires first. Your going to notice a bigger improvment with a good set of tires than you will with the Konis. Obviously the best way to go is with both shocks and new tires (and lighter rims if you can afford it). But as far as bang for your buck goes...buy the tires first.