So, I was looking at buying a 99 Subaru Forrester tonight, and was driving home when this happened to my old car:
Instead of driving home, I cut the cat off, put it in the passenger well, and the drove back to the guy I was buying the Forrester from, and sold the Legacy to him for $200 off the Forrester. In related news, driving a car with no cat sounds really awesome! (The guy is a mechanic, so I assume he will part the car out, scrap it, or repair and sell it.)
I was looking at buying the Forrester because the head gasket on the Legacy was blown, not because the exhaust was terrible.
Seems so random that it must be tempting to look for an explanation.
Or, I knew exactly when and where my old car would die, and thus have a replacement car available at that location for me to drive off in.