Personally, I don't think anything is wrong with the car at all. These cars are not fast by any means, especially when accelerating from a stop. I've got a 96 Accord EX w/ auto trans, and it's quite sluggish until it reaches cruising speeds. The engine has bigger balls in the upper rpm range. VTEC kicks in at around 4,000 rpms, I believe. For sh!ts and giggles, I took my car to the local track and ran an 18.4 @ 77 mph. According to magazine specs, 0-60 times are somewhere in the 10 second range for the autos. Manuals are a complete second faster (if not more) both from 0-60 and in the quartermile. The automatic is like a blackhole that sucks up all of the power. As someone mentioned earlier, also try turning off your AC when accelerating, for this also helps out a great deal.