Here's an interesting story if thinking of buying a stainless exhaust. Three and a half years ago I had a Powerflow exhaust fitted to my 2CT townace. The fitter was loathe to change the downpipe as he said they had problems matching the connection to the manifold (actually turbo). As the original downpipe was in good nick we decided to leave it and replace up to and including the flexi-joint. All has been well since then, a good service at time of installation and at subsequent visits, they even replaced a U joint connector this year without me even asking.

Two months ago my downpipe developed a hole and this week I decided to fix it properly as the MOT is coming up. I took it back to the original supplier who replaced the whole front pipe and welded the old 'to-manifold' connector onto it. Good job and reasonable price but when I asked for the lifetime warranty they were adamant that Powerflow don't do frontpipes and they would only give me a two year warranty.

So I entered into dialogue with Powerflow and below are the replies I got (I've de-personalised them ):

"Hello Ian
I can only imagine that the reason XXXXXXX are declining to give a longer guarantee is that officially Powerflow does not offer front
pipes as part of our product range. We are a "cat-back" company. For this reason they probably don't want to get involved in a situation where
the car possibly ends up at a different dealership with a warranty issue on the front pipe and we say sorry, we don't do front pipes. However, I have no doubt that if you asked for a "Powerflow" front pipe they would have used the same grade of stainless pipe used in the silencer systems and it is very unlikely you will ever have a problem with the front pipe.
Regards
XXXXXXXXX
Powerflow UK

and when I challenged them to change their marketing material they replied:

Hello Ian

Thanks for your reply and comments of which we will certainly take note.

Our dealers are meant to inform customers of our policy and of the fact that any work undertaken on cats or front pipes is not done under the Powerflow banner but is purely an arrangement between dealer and
customer.

Regards

XXXXXXXX
Powerflow UK

So make note, Powerflow do not offer an end to end warranty. They do not supply front pipes nor cats for petrol engined vehicles.

Having said that I am still happy with the service I have had from both Powerflow and the supplier but am a little miffed about the impression they give of providing guaranteed for life end to end systems.

- (#14292) Ian Dunse (Derbs), 26 Nov 04 04:20

Hmm that is interesting, I had an exhaust fitted 'manifold to end' and there was no mention of the garantee only extending to the flexi joint.

that said it has been faultless ever since [touch wood]

I would still recomend.

- (#14292) Paul, 14 Dec 04 10:30