2003 Honda Civic EX Coupe from North America - Comments

Nothing. The car is flawless.

I love this car!

This car is spirited and fun to drive. I have a 5-speed, and the car is strong in every gear up to the red line.

The ride does tend to be a little busy on roads that are less than smooth, but I think this may be due to the sporty-handling nature of the car.

I bought this car because I wanted something more fuel-efficient and with lower payments than my Xterra. I have been pleasantly surprised with just how strong a performer my Civic Coupe is.

There are two quibbles I have with the car:

-gas mileage is a little less than what I expected. I average about 26-28mpg. I expected to get at least 30mpg. This low figure may also be my own fault since I am somewhat of a leadfoot.

-The car is expensive to insure! My six month premium went up by almost $200 dollars compared to my Xterra. My agent claimed it was due to the Civic being a year newer than my Xterra and because the Civic has high theft rates.

Overall, this is a fun little car, with much more performance than you'd expect.

Give you car some time. Some new cars do not get their full gas mileage for 3000-4000 miles as the engine is still breaking in. Good luck.

I have a 2003 Honda Civic and I think its one of the best cars I have ever driven. I just recently added a Magna Flow Exhaust systems, with catback. It gave it a huge addition of horse power to the car. I still need to do a lot of things to it. Nobody dis the Civic one of the greatest cars out there.

Possibly one of the most reliable cars ever built, to the last commenter though, the most restrictive piece of exhaust is the catalytic converter, your cat back system is going to give less than 10 horse and closer to 5 lbs of torque, some of what you notice might just be in your head, but if you like it that's what counts.

Well I also changed the catalytic converter and have had my car tested on how much horse power it has and stock in came with 130 and now it has 160hp so its definitely not in my head.

First of all, you said a catback system, which means you didn't change the catalytic converter. If you did install a perf cat, then of course that will be different then what I said. In my comment I specifically said the cat is important to change.

Secondly I'd have to see the Dyno spec sheet before I fully believed that only a catback system AND a new catalytic converter gave 30hp, although it is now believable. I guess though you probably meant a new cold air intake and better ignition too right?

I have a 2003 Honda Civic Si... which has the 160HP 2.0L DOHC i-VTEC engine (code K20A3). I added an HKS Hi-Power exhaust system and can tell you for a fact that it didn't add much power. Unless your car came stock with one of those 1-inch diameter 80's style exhaust pipes, no exhaust is going to give your car an extra 30hp. I also have to add that your car comes stock with 127hp, not 130. If you added a cold air intake, header, high-flow cat, and catback system to your car you would be lucky to get up to 150hp (a more reasonable number would most likely be closer to 140...maybe 145). My Si (along with any K20-based car) can get up to 20hp from a cold air intake (Due to the very restrictive nature of the stock airbox. It has been proven that a K&N filter will actually cause a loss of 1hp with a stock engine.), but a complete exhaust system from the header back will only add maybe 5hp. My HKS exhaust with the stock header (yes, the Si comes stock with a 4-1 header) and stock cat adds 1-2hp and roughly 1 lb of torque. When I had my 2002 Mustang GT (4.6L SOHC V-8), I was going to put Flowmasters on it. I was only going to do it to make it a bit louder since I found that, even on an engine of that size, it would only add approximately 5hp.

To the review above... I also have an 03 si and was wondering what kind of exhaust to get. I'm not an idiot I have another civ. I have done a lot to. I've just never heard an 02 or above civ. si with an exhaust yet. Anywayz, back to my?. How does the HKS sound on yours? I was thinking of getting the evo 2 for the simple fact that the evo 2 is stainless compared to the original greddy evo. Your thoughts?