what we're saying isn't that you can't drive a civic...it's that you are still quite inexperienced in potentially dangerous situations, and you're probably better off driving a beater around for a few years. that way, even a crash won't kill your bank account. a car, its maintenance, and upgrades are not easy for a 16 year old to handle. now i'm only 21, but i learned to drive on a beater, and no matter how confident i was and am in my own driving, i am glad i spent a couple years with that old car, truly learning the ropes on the road. and you'll learn a lot more 'real' stuff about cars if you have to do some repairs on an older car. adding CAI, exhaust, etc, doesn't teach you anything about truly working on a car.