The build quality of this system is very good. I previously replaced the down pipe with a Magnaflow piece, and finished a complete Magnaflow with this cat-back assembly. My installer did note that the rod part of the mount on the new muffler was installed all the way into the mounting bracket on the car that the muffler interferd with the right side coil spring. Also the part of the center pipe that curves over the axle beam left only about 3/4 inch clearance with the pipe. The sound is excellent and subdued until you open the throttle. No droning at cruising speed of 75 mph on the highway ay.

I absolutely love this system, from its easy install, to its great looks and sound! It’s well-constructed to fit perfectly. I would highly recommend this product to anyone looking at replacing their exhaust! In fact I would recommend just throwing away your old system and putting this on. It's that good!

Well, I found this coupon on vwvortex.com that knocked a good percentage off the price and so I saved money for months, knowing that I wanted to buy this cat-back for my GTI VR6, and when I finally saved up enough, the coupon had expired. Literally the week before. I was a little annoyed. Anyway, I emailed hottexhaust's customer service late at night and received a response within a few hours that included a coupon that knocked it down to about the same price (like $10 more - still an amazing deal, especially with the free shipping). So I ordered it the next morning. Much to my surprise, it arrived in 6 days, including the weekend. I was seriously amazed - you never think that free shipping can mean fast shipping, especially going from CA to eastern PA. So I had a couple friends help me out that weekend installing it. I figured between three savvy people and the fact that its a direct fit, we could have banged it out in just a day. WRONG. If you don't want to read the whole next part, it's just an account of how ridiculous it was to get this thing in my car because the previous owner of my GTI did some sort of crappy repair to the stock exhaust. In short, I'd say either have a shop do it for you, or make sure it is going to actually be an easy job before you decide to do it yourself. Anyway, feel free to skip the next long paragraph. Anyway, he welded a thick piece of steel piping to the stock cat and cranked down so hard on the exhaust clamp on the flared end of the new pipe connecting to the resonator that it fused the metals which then further rusted together. It was so bad that I snapped both bolt ends clean off the clamp trying to take it off. To make matters worse, the rear-most muffler hanger plate bolts were so rusted that they stripped on my first crank, so it was impossible to take off. We ended up just slipping the old one out of the rubber hangar, and slipping the new one back in - not difficult, just a nuisance. The botched repair was difficult. It was absolutely a BEAR to get the stock resonator off. We finally cut into the flared end of the steel pipe and got the old resonator out. And that was the end of Day One - about six hours. Day Two began early, and we thought "how could it be any worse?" WRONG AGAIN. After an entire day (literally like 8 hours) of trying to get the new resonator in several different ways (mainly cutting and re-flaring the steel pipe), we had had enough. We ran to a nearby Advanced Auto to figure out a quick solution before it got dark and, by dumb luck, found the exact coupler we needed (2.25" to 2.25"), even though we had called and been told that they couldn't find one in stock. Finally, something worked! Another two or three cuts on that steel pipe to get the right position and Voila, we were getting it done. Everything went up pretty easily after that. We ran TigerPatch on either end of the coupler to seal it off and tightened everything up. The last thing we had to deal with was the fact that the tips were touching my valence because I couldn't adjust the rear-most plate. I just whipped out my knife and cut out around them (probably because I was so done with this project at this point) and it cut like butter. It turned out really smooth, with factory-like curves. It looks almost stock in my opinion, and no one would be any wiser without scrutinizing the lowest part of the valence. Of course, we couldn't have everything go right... the car fell off the jack while my friend was lowering the last side of the car down. Luckily, no one was under it or even near it because he saw it start and just unfortunately didn't have the time to do anything but warn everyone to back up. It fell almost a foot to the side, the jack tore up a spot in my drive way and punched up a spot in my side skirt. But the car is fine otherwise and no one got hurt, so it could have been so much worse. Finally, SEVENTEEN HOURS of labor and trials and pain and soreness and cutting and constantly climbing in and out underneath the car, all just for this exhaust. I called my family outside and I had a couple other friends there at this point as well. I started the car and it was GLORIOUS. Amazing, absolutely amazing sound. I took her for a drive and it was the greatest sound ever. Especially the low-to-mid RPMs with the resonator vibrating everything in the car, but ripping it up to high RPMs still gave me a tingly feeling. Absolutely amazing. It's been in the car about three weeks now and the sound has mellowed out. By mellowed out, I mean that it still sounds amazing and extremely aggressive, but now I get little backfire-like pops between some shifts and when I rev it and the resonator doesn't vibrate everything quite as much (I also took out the broken rear ash tray that was doing most of the buzzing since it was sitting literally right on top of the resonator). The idle sounds pretty great too. I'm so excited to be able to drive with the windows down in the summer so I can really hear it! As for performance, I'll definitely say that I'm getting more power, at least enough for me to notice it. But when I'm not on it as much (since she's my daily), I'm getting roughly an extra two miles to the gallon city - I'm taking her on her first long highway journey since it's been installed today. That varies depending upon how I drive though, and I also just put in a Pipercross Air Filter, so that may be helping it as well. And lastly, the tips look AMAZING coming out under the valence. I was a bit worried that it wouldn't look good, but they really change the look of the rear of the car to be much more aggressive. They stick out farther than I was expecting but that could be partially the way mine had to be installed since there is some play with most of the plates/hangars. They do get dirty though! It rained around here a few times and they lost their shine with all the dirt from my car settling on them. Bottom line: This product and company are fantastic! Just make sure it is actually going to be easy before you do it yourself!

This exhaust system is great and sounds real good. I've installed this system on a 1999 beetle and every thing fitted in to place just perfect. Thank you Magnaflow, I'm very happy so is my wife. Great product I recommend this to anyboby.

I really appreciate my new exhaust. Really nice sound and it looks very good on the car. Thanks