Thought we were talking about the 1st gens, though? He was asking for his 2003 X.

And Gibson's 2nd gen exhaust isn't $250, either. It's much more expensive because it's a true cat-back.

And by "doubting" the stock y pipe is all that restrictive tells me you've NEVER seen the stock y-pipe. Picture this. It's a 1.25" diameter tube, bent with a crush bender so much so that in places its diameter is reduced to 1" or smaller.

So if you replace the exhaust tube AFTER the stock y-pipe with a 1.5" diameter exhaust tube, you haven't really helped anything, because the restrictive 1" tube is STILL there. And not for just 1 bank of 3 cylinders; the stock y-pipe has the same size 1.25" tubing coming in from each side, then merging into a single 1.25" tube. And since it's crushed, then it's darn near 1" when it's all said and done.

Yes, I SERIOUSLY question Magnaflow's "results" if they are only making a slip-on cat-back. If you seriously believe the power gains the manufacturers post on their website, I've got a "computer chip mod" for $200 to sell 'ya that'll increase your power by 10%...

Then again, Magnaflow's website only claims a 9hp and 12 ft-lb increase from their "cat-back" for the 2st gen. No way in hell they're getting more increase w/ the 1st gen.

web page

Look. The guy wanted to know the difference in the pricing between all the difference exhaust manufacturers. I told him. The difference is, some are slip-ons (cheap), and some are true cat-backs. A true cat-back is going to be significantly more expensive, because there's a lot more to it than just a muffler with two tubes sticking out of it, which is ALL the slip-on "catbacks" are. They're NOT real cat-back exhausts; they're no different than just replacing the muffler with a high-flow muffler and calling it a day.

As to why Magnaflow costs so much, I guess it's because they can magically get better results from a slip-on than a true catback...

I've personally bought the Gibson. I KNOW how it's made. I've also personally replaced in after two weeks with a real cat-back exhaust from Nismo (only ones that made one for my Frontier at the time). So don't come here and imply I don't know WTF I'm talking about.

I didn't know when I bought the Gibson that it was just a slip-on. And nobody around here seems to want to admit that it's not a true cat-back, as I never heard anybody say that before I bought it. I wasted $250 on an exhaust that wasn't worth more than the $125 muffler that came with it. I wouldn't want someone else to do the same, without know what they were buying in the first place.