Go with the dump exhaust, but save enough money to put on a real exhaust later.. 
I have basically a dump exhaust on my LX, a 12" piece on the back of the last cat, pointed downward (no muffler). It definetly is loud, rather frieking annoying to be honest, I like the sound when wheeling, since it sounds good up around 4500rpms spinning in snow (atleast inside the vehicle it sounds good, I've heard other stories by those outside 
), but most of the time it's just loud. On the highway, just plain loud, at certain speeds/rpms you get a good resonance going, where the whole body is echoing, man does that get old, when the stereo is cranked and you still can't hear it.
As far as fuel mileage savings, I don't know, I honestly think I have more power than the stock exhaust at anything above 3000 rpms, but off the line I think I'm worse. Hard to me to judge since I pulled my exhaust off because it was smashed, so it was crunched to about 2/3 of it's normal volume for months, so I don't have a good baseline for comparison. I think it's easier to drive grandma-ish with a open exhaust you can hear much better, tell when the rpms go up even alittle, I'm getting the best gas mileage I've ever gotten (just over 15mpg) but I haven't gotten that all the time I've had this open exhaust, so I don't think the exhaust has much to do with it, I think just my driving style has turned more mundane, gas prices are forcing me to change my flashy speedy image
For mine I'm not doing it to be a rebel or to get chicks, but I'm not putting the stock exhaust back on, way to easy to hit, I've only hit mine on about every single trail I've wheeled on, driven home on a busted/hanging exhaust many times...enough of that, so I'm routing mine differently going inbetween the body/frame...atleast that is the plan, when I actually get around to doing it I'll take some pics and hopefully it'll be sweet.
I totally understand the getting attention part, and that's cool, but a open Cruiser exhaust doesn't sound that good, a louder than stock exhaust with a muffler that gives it a nice pop or something would be cool, and I'll go that route, but the open exhaust is muffled to begin with, dull (but loud) sound, and at higher rpms gets very raspy, not unlike a Honda civic rapping up...only this is even louder...I'd go with a nice muffler, glasspack or something.
Good Luck...
Mark Brodis
I have basically a dump exhaust on my LX, a 12" piece on the back of the last cat, pointed downward (no muffler). It definetly is loud, rather frieking annoying to be honest, I like the sound when wheeling, since it sounds good up around 4500rpms spinning in snow (atleast inside the vehicle it sounds good, I've heard other stories by those outside ), but most of the time it's just loud. On the highway, just plain loud, at certain speeds/rpms you get a good resonance going, where the whole body is echoing, man does that get old, when the stereo is cranked and you still can't hear it.As far as fuel mileage savings, I don't know, I honestly think I have more power than the stock exhaust at anything above 3000 rpms, but off the line I think I'm worse. Hard to me to judge since I pulled my exhaust off because it was smashed, so it was crunched to about 2/3 of it's normal volume for months, so I don't have a good baseline for comparison. I think it's easier to drive grandma-ish with a open exhaust you can hear much better, tell when the rpms go up even alittle, I'm getting the best gas mileage I've ever gotten (just over 15mpg) but I haven't gotten that all the time I've had this open exhaust, so I don't think the exhaust has much to do with it, I think just my driving style has turned more mundane, gas prices are forcing me to change my flashy speedy image
For mine I'm not doing it to be a rebel or to get chicks, but I'm not putting the stock exhaust back on, way to easy to hit, I've only hit mine on about every single trail I've wheeled on, driven home on a busted/hanging exhaust many times...enough of that, so I'm routing mine differently going inbetween the body/frame...atleast that is the plan, when I actually get around to doing it I'll take some pics and hopefully it'll be sweet.
I totally understand the getting attention part, and that's cool, but a open Cruiser exhaust doesn't sound that good, a louder than stock exhaust with a muffler that gives it a nice pop or something would be cool, and I'll go that route, but the open exhaust is muffled to begin with, dull (but loud) sound, and at higher rpms gets very raspy, not unlike a Honda civic rapping up...only this is even louder...I'd go with a nice muffler, glasspack or something.
Good Luck...
Mark Brodis
