If you do a Search, you will find my experience with a generic cat on my 96 SL500.

My advice - forget about having one welded in. It's very hard to get to get it right without removing the cat and pipe, and then with the labor, you might as well get the right part. If they try to weld it in without removing it, there is a good probability you will get air leaks, which will drive the ECU nuts.

There may be one-piece replacements for your car, as there were for mine. The cost was $713 vs $860 for the genuine MB part (including ground shipping).

I put my money on the genuine MB part because that's what the ECU is calibrated for. "Failure" of the generic cat is likely to be an unsolvable P0133/0153.

The Meineke guy told me he "sees that all the time" and that "replacement cats don't work on Mercedes." He refused to weld another one it or even to try to re-weld the existing one.

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Chuck Taylor
Falls Church VA
'66 200, '66 230SL, '96 SL500. Sold: '81 380SL, '86 300E, '72 250C, '95 C220, 3 '84 280SL's '90 420SEL, '72 280SE, '73 280C, '78 280SE, '70 280SL, '77 450SL, '85 380SL, '87 560SL, '85 380SL, '72 350SL, '96 S500 Coupe