Why are Megan exhausts so hated
 

I don't understand why everyone bashes on them...
They offer true dual without a y or x pipe... They sound great... Welds are amazing... AND the whole thing is polished!!! Something which takes a lot of time...

no idea how they've held up with the Z's, but in the (8th) civic community they were down right horrid.

We have a few customers with them on their Z's and they like their exhaust finish/note/everything!

+1 Huck speaks the truth in the 8th.

Honda/Acura world, they tend to be the ultimate fart can. I had flex pipes from them fail on 2 of mine. They probably put more quality into their products now and come a long way but it was a long running of bad talk. Plus IMO the exhaust for the 370z just doesn't do it justice.....its got a higher pitched tone then most and just doesn't suit the Z

I notice that their products often get revised. They tend to crank out something (cheap?) and hope for the best. When people have issues, they revise the design and get the new versions working better, but it shows the lack of up front R&D. I remember reading comments on several car forums talking about poor initial fitment with exhausts, headers and coilovers. This was several years ago, so maybe they are better now?

^^ this. 100% agree

I generally stay away from anything Megan out of principle, exhaust or any other part...

Used their headers on my old 06 350Z and they worked out great!







DAN

Why principle?

Typically anything they make will be of the cheapest quality with no regard for purpose

Test Pipes, Coilovers, you name it they make it but do so in the cheapest and least amount of R&D possible.

It's exactly what's wrong with the aftermarket industry nowadays, cheap knockoffs from China :shakes head:

I am just talking exhaust, for their coilovers, I agree, but in regards to test pipes, what real R&D do you need to do? It's just a tube... And if you make the argument that you'll get a CEL, almost all the companies that FIRST made test pipes had CEL's then they were like OHHHHHH, we need to make the bung longer to make the O2 sensor not sit in the slipstream on the exhaust gases

Would you say the same about Stillen?

No not at all.

I run a set of their HFC's and they are good quality

Weird, because for sure Stillen cranks out products, their the first to make exhausts and everything... Their exhausts are KNOWN to knock the rear(maybe its more mid) crossmember, then they revised it... And I have the revised version, the welds are rusting and it still knocks...
And I must say, Stillen's customer service sucks... I say this from my own experience, recent and past...

My HFC's are fine, I have seen some pretty poor Megan welds on their TP's. I have never bought anything directly from Stillen but they have always been nice to me when I have talked to them directly.

When it comes to anything Megan I don't ever consider any of their products for my own vehicle (but that's just me and I've been called an "elitist" here before :icon17:) but by all means if you like it then that's all that matters.

Just let me know what the exhaust looks like after a year or two...

I've got Berk HFC's and Stillen G3's as well as a Stllen CBE which is rusting... After 2 months... I was even emailing the son of the owner about it, and he just stopped replying...
I don't care much for the FI exhaust, but from what I have heard, not just on the forum, but from other people, Tony is THE MAN when it comes to customer service

The Megan exhaust was a 370Z exhaust that was modified to fit an Infiniti FX50S...


And it sounds great

Megan were always known as the ebay knock off. They're cheap, usually copies and at the price point/shiny point, where everyone can afford and does buy them, with no regard for the car.

Test pipes? yeah, they're just pipes, that's the problem on the 350, 370, G35 and G37, they'l rasp to hell and back :( They need design and thought on these cars.

Sounds to me that Megan exhaust is just a POS. I have never heard of them before this thread. If you are going to buy a new exhaust (CBE) & it only cost a couple to several hundred, then that should say something. If you want a really good CBE (all three sections) you are going to pay a couple to several grand for it. As they say "you have to pay to play." If you can get an awesome exhaust that someone paid premium dollar for & it is from a very reputable name company & they are willing to sell it to you for a good deal, then that is perfect for you. FYI....... Save your money and get a good exhaust system instead of being cheap a** & buying something that is a POS & is going to crap out on you.

I like how everyone ignored Speed Elements post that they have several happy customers running the Megan exhaust. I do remember a few years back when Invidia first came around and I ordered their exhaust for my 240sx off ebay. Everyone knocked their products saying they were cheap and no good. As a company expands prospers it normally increases their work quality. Todays Megan products may be a lot different than the Megan products from 5-6 years ago everyone is referring to.

I do agree that as time passes companies usually do evolve & make things better (hopefully), but not all companies do. These companies have to spend money in order to actually make money. They will have to beef up their R&D department so there products will become more reliable.

I really don't know what to say, and I think a lot of people who are trash talking on the Megan CBE (that's all I care about for this thread) that have never actually SEEN or held or have heard a Magan CBE on a car... YouTube videos SUCK at illustrating sound because they use iPhones or some other really cheap camera to record sound...
Megan I KNOW is a "new" company to the tuning game, and I think they just have more honest pricing... In my opinion, there is no reason for an exhaust costing $1600 like Stillen's... (yes I have theirs, but I got a HELL of a deal...)
Lastly, being a weld inspector for several years, the Megan Drift Spec exhaust that I had in my hands before it was modded to fit another car has the BEST welds out of the others I have seen closely (Stillen, Berk, OEM Nismo, and Invidia)

Just my 2 cents... I almost wish that if I knew how hated they were I would've installed it on my car to test sound, reliability I can test on his car, and God knows his 5.0L engine with his driving style will put stress on that thing

i wasn't disappointed in it. wasn't up to par with all the expensive exhausts obviously (had fast intentions), but it's definitely not what all these guys put it out to be.

Orly?? i have and i can say FOR A FACT that its not the most flattering sound on a z (yup, heard it in person). the exhaust itself doesnt look bad, but the lack of depth in the tone (high pitched and metallicy), and the low cost doesnt help its cause.



megan isn't exactly "new" into the modding game. they got their bad rep by coming out with cheap products many years ago (back in the f&f days, ~2001) and continued to do so until the rest of the aftermarket communities' quality well surpassed them and forced them to play catch up. so has their product improved? yes. Is it on pair with other high performance exhausts? no.


see:

-gt haus
-akrapovic's (brand spankin new to the car aftermarket game and is already a standard in quality)
-motordyne
-fast intentions
-hell even the cnt exhaust i have has phenominal welds

i will agree with u that their quality has come up some lately, but its gone from bad to acceptable. not great by any means

this is why gthaus' exhaust cost what they do (see pics)

http://www.the370z.com/intake-exhaus...os-videos.html

Does not surprise me at all. I quit dealing with Stillen about 10 years ago, when they could not get an order right to save their life. Not surprised to hear their customer service, when critically needed, is garbage.

I quit ordering from them and criticized them heavily - but fairly - on a 300ZX site. Then I ordered a $5 catalog, the only thing IMO that they were getting right at the time. I did not plan on ordering from the catalog, just wanted to look through it. They did not send it. When I called after a few weeks, they put me on hold, had some guy come on and angrily read the post I made back to me, and said they were not sending the catalog. I stood by my post 100% and asked for my $5 back. Then they sent the catalog. heh. Haven't bought a thing from them since.

I wouldn't exactly consider akrapovic new to the game. The have the experience making some of the best quality motorcycle exhausts for a decade they just changed the game up. I want and exhaust designed by Yamaha Instrument Corp. like the new Lexus LFA. That is hands down one of the best sounding cars I've ever heard.

Megan = Agency Power

I don't know why people are too dense to see they are the exact same product with different badging.

GT Haus has to be stupid to make their exhausts like that... Yeah it's going to be expensive because some asshóle's design is sooooo stupid that another asshóle has to sit there all day welding a billion of these things in place...

And as for sound... That is still 100% subjective... Some people say that the Stillen exhaust with HFC's sounds great, I think it sounds kind of stupid to be honest... I feel like a ricer Civic driver with the rasp and tinniness... But I do like the HP gains... At the same time, I have plenty of friends who LOVE this annoying sound, héll, I have a friend who NEVER goes into 6th and usually is a gear below what he "should" be in so that he hears the drone of his exhaust... He LIKES the drone...
So that is all subjective

Not sure if I can agree with this, they look similar, but at least Megan's tips don't look as bad as Agency Power's

to me it just seems like no matter what vehicle it is, megan finds out what way to best replicate the worst possible sound that engine can make and goes with tgat. idk how they do it, but they do. it's like someone is sitting around and goes "o geez that sounds like sh!t... lets reproduce that sound for the masses."

why?! time after time do they make the cars sound like u are farting thru a kazoo into a coffee can??

Sound is subjective... To each his own

You realize at the heart of it all, exhaust is just bent pipes welded together with resonators/mufflers right? The majority of which is done overseas in China or India.

See, this right here is the reason vendors get away with charging stupid amounts of money for their products. People have this preconceived notion that the only way to get a quality product is to spend more money. It's pretty sad, but if megan were to charge, say, $1500 for their product more people would buy them and claim how awesome they are. All because they paid XXXX amount of dollars for a "quality" product. I had a megan exhaust on my WRX and not ONCE did it "crap out" on me. Furthermore, I am not even certain how an exhaust can "crap out" on someone. A weld can break on almost any exhaust, doesn't matter the price. However if you do have a weld on a flange break, you have to pay a whole $30 or less to have it rewelded.

Let's be honest with each other and face it, there is a "Z tax" most vendors put on our cars products because they know they can. Do this, go price out a full exhaust for a mustang and then for a Z. Why exactly is the Z's a considerable amount more? Because stupid people are willing to pay more because they think their car "deserves it".

I've known quite a few people that have run their own exhaust shops on the internet and made custom CBE's for SRT4, 350Z, WRX's etc, and I can tell you this; Once the jig is made and sent overseas the production costs on an exhaust is laughable. The fact people are willing to pay 10x (+even more) just makes me laugh even more.

Research what factory they are made in. You may find the exact same address ;)

Thank you!!! My points exactly

edub370 even made a post stating that their price is too low, AKA bad product...
"and the low cost doesnt help its cause."

Same. Mainly because I do not like the sound the exhaust puts out. I'm not sure about the quality of the metal or where it was welded etc.

Funniest part about him saying that is...he has a CNT exhaust. Which is one of the cheapest exhausts made for the Z. Definitely made to the same standards as megan, or any other "cheap" exhausts out there.

:tup:

Co-worker has a megan exhaust on his e46 M3 and I think it sounds quite nice. Actually he took it to a BMW meet and now there are a few M3's with that exhaust after hearing his.