im looking to get a EK Hatch..
and i had a couple dumb questions..

what is a good year to get from 96-00? (which has more problems)
are they OBD1 or OBD2?
if OBD2, what are the "bad" things?
if converting OBD2 to OBD1, how will smoging go?

 

No certain year has more problems than another. They're all OBDII ('96-98 OBDIIa / '99-'00 OBDIIb).

HX autos are known to have issues (so they say). The transmission being the issue. These continuously variable transmissions are expensive to fix and not everyone might know hot to work on one.

The '99-'00 Si comes with a stock B16A2 (DOHC VTEC). The EX comes with a stock D16Y8 (SOHC VTEC).

But the only hatches available in the US are the CX and DX hatches. Both use the same engine, the D16Y7 (SOHC non-VTEC).

Can't really tell you about bad things about OBDII. I know I'm fine with mine, but I'm okay with stock engines.

I'm not super familiar with California emissions, but there are a lot of threads out there about it.