[greglepore]

Yeah, its why I avoid dealer service departments like the plague once the vehicle is out of warranty. They do things "by the book" which means the least likely way to cause a bringback, cost be damned. In your case, imho a good shop would say, hey, your center cat is bad, you might want to do the exhaust, but at a minimum do the center cat. Leave the choice to you. In any event, even if you did the entire exhaust, a good muffler shop could do it for 30% of 5500.