So today I basically bought a 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier. It is Black, 5-speed manual, 2 door, 80,000 miles on it. I had a 1998 Cavalier in the past, which looks almost identical to the one that I had bought today. I wanted to know how I can go about modding the cavalier to make it look better. My 1998 Cavalier did not turn out so well because 1. i was poor, 2. i rushed things, 3. i didn't know what I was doing. Now that I have some pretty good experience with Cavaliers in general, I wanted to know how I can mod the cavalier, without messing up it's blue book value, or messing it up to look bad. I am now more patient when it comes to doing things so that will not be a problem. I am pretty much just as poor though. I was looking at body kits but they are about 600, then another 300 to install it, then another 400 to paint the kit, so that is near 1500.00 just to get a kit on the car. It would look nice with the evo5 or the drift kit I hope to get one someday. I saw rims/tires for about 800.00 for the set which are 18" which would make the wheels look nice. I would want a body kit first though. The back end of the 2003-Up cavalier's I am not so fond of. I like the old style of the car where it's just a brake light and turning light. Now they have an entire strip of lights on the rear end. I wish it was the same as it is on the 95-99 Cavaliers, but that is not a big deal at this point in time. I want to get a decent air intake, but all the one's on eBay and on sites are 200.00! I spent around 50.00 for a short ram air intake for my 98 cavalier, why are these so expensive? The engine of the car does look brand new so I am happy about that. I do not want an audio system in it at this point unless that is not hard to install. I know it was quite easy in my 1998 cavalier, but with this one, I want to take my time and make it look nice without ruining any of the plastic parts. If anyone could help me out I would very much appreciate your opinions/suggestions. Thank you!

1st off the enter key is your friend, use it. Yes i actually took the time to read all of that, but most other people wont. Big blocks of text scare the JBO.

2nd the EVO 5 is a horribly ugly kit and should have never been made for our cars(It makes baby Jesus cry and preggo women miscarry).

3rd I have the same car.




4th a 95-02 trunk and taillights are a direct swap. I paid $150 for my trunk lid($30), spoiler($100), and taillights($20). Paint was another $150(+my old trunk lid and taillights).

And last but not least, if you live in the Northeast region of the US, im trying to get ride of a set of 16" by 7.5" Sport Edition CD wheels. I had them on my car before the airride and they are a 35mm backspacing and wont tuck. (Hence the steelies in the pictures).

I have an 04 cavalier, and like you, there was no way i was going to pay $200+ for an intake. so do what i did, find a cheap $30 intake for a 2.4 cavy, and replace the filter with a K&N one. so you would end up spending around $60 including the K&N filter, instead of spending $200. (there is a pic in my sig of this)

More info on that here

I knew i forgot something, but yea. For an intake, just buy a cheap ebay one(for the eco) and slap a K&N filter on it.

LINK <-thats the one i got. the bracket attached to the throttle body makes the 90 deg. elbow rub on the hood a little, but nothin serious

You should also lower it before putting a body kit on.