looking for a basic setup for street use for my 98 hatch. looking to spend under 1200. any suggestions would be helpful.

 

The list is rather long. You say "street use." Do you have a specific amount you want the car lowered, is it going to be autocrossed or tracked at all? If you plan to run SCCA or NASA events there are rules governing what you can do to the suspension.

A reasonably priced set of coiover sleeves, springs and shocks will not cost $1200. However, if you want Camber kits the total will be in that range using quality parts. Personal preference is either Ground Control or Skunk2 for the sleeves and Eibach springs mounted on Koni "yellow" shocks. The springs are linear rate and can be very stiff, but streetable. Our old Civic (96 HB) was done this way and was fine. THe alternate to this would be something like Neuspeed Sport (progressive rate) springs and the Koni shocks. This last choice is a fixed ride height setup. I have no experience with any other brands. BTW: The linear rate spring is a constant value versus the progressive which gets stiffer the more it is compressed.

Good luck