I just walked out of a muffler shop, where I was told that the exhaust repairs could be several hundred dollars. That the muffler for a Saturn is 129 and the flex pipe is 125 and the cat will 250. All this before they even look at the car.

Is this normal?

 

holy crap 125.00 for a flex pipe!? i bought an ebay stainless steel header for $201 shipped from california and it comes with the flex pipe. cats can be expensive, thats somewhat believable. the muffler probably comes with the I pipe that goes from the cat back to the muffler so 129 isnt out of the question. shop around and if you can do the work yourself, youll save alot!

 

I was just told that to fix my exhaust i would cost 1200 dollars.

He said, "oh you need a new muffler and the Cat was cut loose by someone and you have a crack near the manifold."

I was infuriated. The car was not that loud when I took it in. I have driven past police officers without comment in the past few days. There is no way that the cat is removed, unless they removed it.

 

He is trying to scam me or he just doesn't want to work on it for some reason. Either way I'm going to find someone else to work on it this weekend.

 

With the various restrictions that have been leveraged into the laws, the muffler shops have gotten greedy. Figure about 30% for parts, and do the work yourself ....

 

from exhaust manifold to cat (included) flange to flange can be had for $275.
I pipe through muffler can't be even that

Rip job move on

 

I got a second quote from another muffler shop, this time by my house and it was 742 dollars. I think I will find the parts and do it myself on a weekend.

Any good sources for parts?

 

You have not indicated where you live. Where ever Ferndale is. Around here rust is not an issue. Muffler shops bend up pipes to get things fixed. Catalytic converters have to be welded in as far as I know.
I had a generic Hi Flo Cat installed last fall for $150.00 which parts and labor. Check with local auto parts place for bits and pieces, some place like NAPA or CarQuest although O'Reillys or Autozone should give a decent estimate but I would use one of the others.
As far as some of this from the first shop, go look yourself as to whether these parts are missing.
Noise is not the issue when it comes to some of these parts, smog compliance is. If the catalytic converter is missing you are going to have a bit of a problem getting some one do some of the work because of that.

 

There's a Ferndale in the foothills just above Hollywood, California -- right close to the famous HOLLYWOOD sign, but it's more a suburb than a city .....

 

Ferndale, MI Just north of Detroit.