[VinnAY]

Pro: out of the box, outstanding finish, very well built, full welds that look clean, impressive. Packaged very well, tips are individually boxed in foam slots. Sound is exceptional, the 4.5 tips are huge and perfectly chromed, zero drone that I can tell. I think that this system will serve me the life of the car.

Con: manufacturing defect that prevented the system from mating to the OE midpipe @ 2.75". The inlet is diameter is 3"...really no reason to do this on an axle back if it forces you in to using an sleeve adapter to get it to mate together. The 3" inlet wasn't expanded enough to slip over that adapter sleeve and it left me with a hatchet job of their clamp holding it together with a prayer. Nothing I could do with it by that point, simply would not assemble per the instructions. Ease of installation has to get a 0 due to poor design and manufacturing defect.

I, too, find I prefer that my money goes to businesses that refund and exchange when something goes wrong, it's too easy to make a 1:1 exchange and keep the customer happy. Referring them to your various forms, asking for pictures and to have this all submitted so it can be judged if it's good enough, isn't good enough as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not going to knock AWE here. I talked to them, they talked to me, politely, and they have a process for this and I disagreed with their process and the service that I was receiving and we didn't resolve our differences.

But the implication on the part of the AWE rep I was talking to that if I had simply had that joint welded, that "modification voids the warranty", made this a situation that I couldn't abide by any longer. If welding an exhaust system connection voids the warranty then it's too fragile a product to think that you'll stand by it under any other circumstance.

[Josh/AWE]

Hi, Vin.

As I mentioned previously, the images were purely for reference so we can see what you're referring to as we're not there with you, physically. The form is simply for documentation purposes to ensure the issue didn't occur again.

There would not have been an instance where it would have been judged, so to speak, and we could have sent a call tag to have what you received sent back so we could fix it, to then turn around and send it right back out to ya with minimal downtime. The other option would have been to do a swap with call tags. Either way, all that needed to happen was a bit of info and images for reference.

Our policy is that if the exhaust is modified, it voids our manufacturer's warranty -- it is but a typical policy in the aftermarket. You could, of course, do what you wished... I was simply looking out for you as I did not want something that could be easily fixed to do more harm than good (i.e. modifying the system).

Also, for the record, the axleback is designed this way due to the ABE and CBE applications utilizing the same rear sections, thus only needing an adapter. This also allows those who run the ABE at first and who wish to upgrade to the CBE an easy upgrade path.

We stand behind what we create to the fullest extent. Period.

[VinnAY]

Like I said I like places that give me the no questions asked satisfaction guaranteed and no hassles guarantee and AWE ain't it.