I recently went up to Mufflerman in Kenmore, NY and have my butchered-up half-factory-half-ghetto piping tossed in favor of a 2-piece crush-bent 2" steel pipe from the secondary cat to the axle and then finished off with a Thrush Turbo muffler. Damage was about $275 including the muffler.
This was the result.
I'm happy with the sound, it's actually a more attractive tone than the canister, and it's louder than stock so it does have an attractive growl to it. To my SURPRISE, I saw a 4 MPG improvement on the drive home (49 vs. 45 MPG), in spite of driving 60 instead of 55, having more stops (different route) and facing headwinds!
This is the best MPG return I've seen with my car yet. This setup may just be superior to factory.