In my opinion, the 3 best things you can do to improve your car's handling are wheels/tires, suspension (shocks/springs or coilovers), and a rear sway bar. In that order.
Most people overlook getting wider wheels and stickier performance tires as the most important handling upgrade. But when you think about it, it makes sense. You can have the stiffest track ready suspension on your car, but if you still have your OEM 15x5 wheels with econo tires, you car will only handle as good as the tires can grip. Now say you have wider wheels with summer performance tires on your car with stock suspension. Sure the car will lean because its suspension is soft, but your tires will be adequate for the rate you are driving at. And another aspect that wider wheels and tires help with.....braking. Your car has a bigger contact patch with the ground, so your braking performance is also improved. Now, one thing you have to realize with stickier tires.....they will not last as long as your econo tires, since they are made of a softer, stickier compound. Now, as long as you align the car, and don't drop it too much (which increases negative camber), they will still wear evenly, they just won't last as long. Its the trade off for performance.
With suspension, you have a lot if options, and can tailor your setup to your wants/needs. Especially on suspension you do not want to cheap out. Stick with name brands that are well established and known.
You basically have 2 options when choosing suspension.....spring/shock combo and coilovers. Springs/shocks tend to be cheaper ($300 to around $700) depending on what you go with. The downside is the car is at a fixed height, and cannot be adjusted to your liking (you basically have to choose your springs to suit the drop you want). Also, lowering springs have softer spring rates than most coilovers, so the handling is generally not as great as with a coilover. Most setups generally are pretty comfortable, do to the softer spring rate. Good spring companies to look at are Eibach, H&R, Neuspeed, and Progress. For shocks, check out Koni, Bilstein, Tokico, or KYB.
For coilovers, there are also quite a few options. You can choose an option that fits your driving style and budget. for a decent entry level coilover, expect to spend about $550ish. and obviously, the prices go up for better setups, all the way to $1500+ for track suspension. And one more thing, you will want to decide if you want damping (stiffness) adjustability on the coilovers.
When I think if coilovers I tend to differentiate them by what they were designed for. For example, Function&Form (Type 1 or Type 2), D2, KSport, BWR, BC were designed more towards cars that are slammed to the ground. Their design allows the car to have the same suspension performance at any height. Then you have coilovers that are more comfort based, such as Tein Basis, or Tein SS. And then you have setups such as Koni/Ground Control that can be either very comfortable, or a good budget track setup depending on what spring rates you choose.
Personally, I think Koni Yellows and Ground Control coilover sleeves are the best bang for your buck setup. Both products come with lifetime warranties (rare in aftermarket car mods), and the option to choose your own spring rate. And you can get them for under $800, where most comparable setups cost $900+.
If you are torn between getting springs/shocks and coilovers, I would say go with coilovers. My brother first got springs and shock on his Accord. It was great at first, but after some time he wanted to go lower, as well as have a stiffer setup. After 2 years with the springs/shocks he finally upgraded to coilovers. In talking with him, I determined it was worth it to just spend more money up front and get coilovers from the get go, instead of spending money twice and having to do extra work as well.
My best advice is to just research all of the options available, and decide what will be best for you. You seem like you want something to improve handling, but don't want to go too low, and still have a nice level of comfort. Also, check out the Suspension thread stickied at the top of the section. It has a TON of good information about suspension brands and setups.
And as far as reliability, if you purchase a quality setup you will be fine. And as long as you don't lower it much, and get it properly aligned, your tires will continue to wear pretty evenly.
Now for sway bars, I haven't done a whole lot of research yet. But I do know if you do get a larger rear sway bar, you will need to get a subframe brace or reinforcement kit as well, since you can risk twisting or ripping out part of the subframe if you install a larger sway bar without reinforcement. Some popular sway bar brands are ASR, Progress, Suspension Techniques, Tanabe, Eibach (I'm not 100% sure all these companies will make applications for your car, but you can always check).
Strut bars don't make a huge difference like the previous kids will., they are more a third or fourth step to just help stiffen everything up after the suspension is done.
Anyways, sorry for the freaking novel of a post, I just really like talking about suspension, showing people all of the options available to them. Hope this helped!
