Over the Christmas break, my car, a 1993 Mazda MX-6 V6 broke down at my parents' house. The distributor was failing. We replaced the igniter, coil, distributor cap, & rotor with still no spark. Eventually, replacing the pickup got it back up and running. Total cost: about $500.
A couple of months before, I had replaced the clogged up catalytic converter with a straight pipe, which left the car smelling like a semi-truck from the 1950's. Very stinky. Very illegal. Very bad for the environment. There are now exhaust leaks around the joints of that pipe, as well as holes in the muffler, leaking exhaust fumes into the car which are enough to knock a person out after an hour or so. I recently purchased a new Eastern High-Flow Catalytic Converter and a new Magnaflow 14862 muffler.
I have yet to receive these latest parts, but am looking forward to getting them on and getting legal and healthy again. More updates, I guess, as they come.