I used to work in a garage that did exaust work about 60% of the time, and I remember we saw one truck come in the had nothing but beer cans and hose clamps from the manifold all the way to the muffler!! This guy had spent more on hose clamps then it cost him to bring it to us to have the whole mess replaced! This was waaaaaaaaayyyy back in the 80's and I know that prices and labor have gone up since then, and you gotta do what you gotta do to get by and get it fixed, I've seen flexi-pipe last for a lot longer than it was supposed to also..