Simply modifying your 02 Civic for a floaty ride is a recipe for
disaster. The car would have to be designed for longer suspension
travel and have sufficient control arms to keep dive&pitch under
control. Perhaps the manufactors might be able to design for it,
especailly considering the vast improvements with current mainstream
shocks and struts. But doing a hatchet job on your 02 Civic will make
it unsafe, simply because the braking and stearing will be directly
affected by the floppy suspension.

But a 'Cadillac' type ride on a Civic, that's still able to maintane an
acceptable amount of handling precision, does sound like a cool idea.
What happened to the days when a car being jacked up on big wheels was
cool? Now a days, everyone is fixated on slamming it as close to the
ground as possible. There's a lot to be said about ground clearance...

Pars

I have a 2003 civic hybrid with 60k miles on it. The ride is extemely
stiff and bumpy, I want to change the springs or struts to get the ride
much smoother, like a floating-on-air Cadillac if possible : )

I don't mind lowering my air pressure, changing springs, changing
struts. I need tips, what is the best bang for my buck, springs or
strut replacements?

I don't want to spend more than  $300 on parts, that is my budget.

Thanks !