Peugeot 405 exhaust and cat

[maddave]

Basically I have a 405 1992, 1.8 GL. The exhaust sheared off today and to save time and the hassle of repairing it myself I took it to Kwik fit. They quoted me £69 for a new mid section of exhaust. It sheared off just after the catalytic convertor and before the first silencer box.
However, during the job the guy comes up to me and asks "has the cat been replaced recently". I said it was about two years ago by the previous owner, I bought the car 2 months ago and have all the receipts. He said well the garage that did it have put the wrong cat on and the new exhaust will not fit. It is a female fitting and so is the end of the cat so they cant be matched up. He said that the car will therefore need a new cat. He quoted me £189 for that plus new exhaust. I relunctantly said fine but on checking the old receipts found that the cat that the previous owner put on was for a 1.9 car and not a 1.8 as mine is. A 1.9 exhaust was put on at the same time too, to obviously match up with the new cat. I phoned back kwik fit and said can they check to see if a 1.9 exhaust will fit on and he said he will check but they then said it didn't. I have just had to pick up the car and pay for the new exhaust and cat and was wondering is this right? Was the garage who put the 1.9 cat + exhaust on correct and able to fit this too my engine and if so then kwik fit should be able to get an exhaust for it too. Surely the only differnece to a 1.9 peugeot and a 1.8 peugeot is the cat and exhaust (plus engine of course), and the exhaust is only different cos it has to match up with the cat, its still the same size? The car had been driving around for 2 years with a 1.9 cat which has not failed so surely this is alright for my car and I can fit a 1.9 exhaust? Can someone just confirm for me that all this is ok and so I can go back to kwik fit and get the old cat put on and then I will buy a new exhaust from here and fit it myself.
Cheers.
David.

[TTRacingPUG405]

i think they just ripped you off because all they had to do to the pipe that went to the cat was to make the tip bigger, or put a bigger pipe. then weld it together. i think they just wanted money from you.