When I bought my Gen V GT Manual I never thought it would be so hard to spend $5k upgrading it! With my MY09 Forester I spent $700 on a Turbo XS dump pipe and cat and spent about $1200 on what I thought was a decent tune and that was it!
So....I went back to the same tuner and went down the same path...ok tried to...because Turbo XS no longer supply exhausts for new models (certainly not for the Mk V Liberty), then tried Garage 88 - they get theirs from HKS. So rang HKS who said they don't import them and any ones that Garage 88 import are not legal in Australia (?!?). Plus Garage 88 told me that you have to remove the subframe to fit the exhaust so it's an extra several hundred in labour bringing the down pipe fitted total to just under $2k! So that left XForce, CEL, MRT and a custom one. Not a fan of either CEL or XForce because of prior experience and forum comments when I used to own a WRX, and apparently their dump pipes won't fit the standard centre pipe and mufflers, and by the time you frig around with it you end up paying the same for the dump pipe and custom flange which causes some power loss as you do for a full system. I don't want a full exhaust due to noise and don't see a point of the varex exhaust as it has less power than standard mufflers unless it is loud, and there are mixed responses about it that it actually damages the engine under power when closed.
Which leaves me with the dreaded MRT and custom. Custom I got quoted $4,400 for dump, cat and centre pipe, and while the full XB Kit is $5k, with the help of my tuner, he negotiated significantly under $4k for the dump, pipe and centre 'XB Option Kit' from MRT. It's still nearly double for what I paid for the same setup for the Forester, but I have tried ringing enough people who are not interested in helping me that I simply don't have the time to invest much more in being stuffed around. I think it's all well and good for many to bag the MRT solution, but at least they have a plug and play solution. My tuner said that while for Rexes and so forth their value can reduce, for newer cars, they are quite competitive and with their warranty are a good deal. And at least my tuner does a good job, so I know that he will get the best out of it (three tunes including 'RaceRom' which has a few bells and whistles).
Fingers crossed that I don't end up with a bad story to tell like some others on this forum!
Anybody else got experience with a dump pipe from MRT on the Gen V GT?
Note: I am happy to be corrected on any items above that you *know* are incorrect, but given all of the above was info direct from companies and distributors, I would only really listen to people who have first hand experience and can provide proof!
