Hello,
I own a 2001 Pathfinder LE 3.5L 4x4 and recently the exhaust broke down
completely (I live in the northeast and with the salt on the road
apparently this happens a lot to nissan vehicles expecially). The
exhaust tail pipe (resonance or something like that) where it connects
to the mid piece which has the Muffler in it is broken. The thing was
broken in the connector area so bad that they cant re-use either of it,
I am told. I looked under it when they showed me and it seems about
right. So they want to replace the muffler part which comes down from
both catylytic convertors and the tail pipe.

Nissan dealer gave me a quote of about $1000 (including labour) - Not
sure about the warranty, I think 2 years on muffler and 1 year on other
parts.
MIDAS gave me a quote of about $700 - Life time Warranty on Muffler, 1
year on other parts.
Local mechanic gave me a quote of about $600 (including parts and
labour) - They claim that they can give me a life time warranty on
these parts, in writing.

I am not sure if I would be able to find these parts somewhere online
and buy them and ask my mechanic to put it in  which might save me a
lot of money. I spent almost 2 days searching the web but I cant find
these particular parts in the web. Any ideas on where I can find them
and what would be the approximate costs for them.

Also, is it worth for me to do this research and wasting time or the
price quoted by the local mechnic of $600 fair?. Can anyone give me any
pointers.

Thanks for your help
With Regards
Andy Thurai