nevernu

So wife picked up a 2010 Civic EX-L, sweet little car and as usual I joined a Civic site (8thcivic.com) to learn more about the car since we tend to keep them so long....

Well it is like being teleported into a whole new world of tucked, shaved, slammed, bagged, boosted vehicles with every mod under the sun, fully plastidipped cars, tons of removal info, accessories, new interiors, etc, etc, etc.

I need to take a course just to understand what they are saying. Why can’t our ES350s have all these goodies!!!

LexBob2

Probably a completely different buyer demographic. If they offered all those mods for the ES, they probably wouldn't sell enough to make it worthwhile.

I bet it's interesting to see what other Civic owners are doing to their cars though.

igzy

I always found it fascinating when someone heavily mods a used entry level car and spends tens of thousands of dollars to make it better in some ways, whereas if they spent the money up front they could have been driving "that" car. For the mods money, one could have bought a brand new EVO or WRX that will outperform the mod'ed Civic in every aspect.

I talked to one of those tuners about it, I cited that he could have bought a few years old Porsche Boxster for the money he spent on mods. He didn't even realize that, he said that one mod led to the next and there it was $20-30K later...

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

I can't see a ES being the type of car bagged with 22" rims etc but that's me.
Also could be why there's not that much out there.

nevernu

I dont even know what bagged is I'm just saying there is a whole different and vibrant culture out there, probably those damn kids again

igzy

When I was younger and had lots of spare time and money, I both cars that I can tune and have fun with it, and I based my buying decision on the amount of available mods for that model. Nowadays, when time and money are short, I look for a car that requires the least amount of both - hence the ES

xanderES

iTrader: (8)

Just a different demographic. The ES is predominately the senior crowd 55+ while the civic is more of the 16-24 first car, hand me down, parents bought me a car crowd. One is more luxury and comfort while the other one is just a commuter car.
Lets be honest here. Most people care about function over looks with the ES. While the young kids use the civic for their form of expression. Their parts are cheap and plentiful which is why you see the civic as one of the most stolen cars. Its also why there's such a large aftermarket. Its all about revenue possibilities for the aftermarket parts companies.

Out of all the people that have ever frequented CL and our subforum very few have ever done any modifications. There just isnt enough demand. If we had a vendor who specifically chose the ES aftermarket niche they'd probably be bankrupt by now.

As for spending enough money to buy a better car I totally agree. Though most of these people who are willing to spend more money on a car than they bought it for don't really think that far ahead. Others might just spend it throughout their years of ownership.
Good ol` american consumerism!