There's a car on the estate that sounds like a cross between a creaking door and a cow in distress.  It's loud but awful.  It sounds rubbish.  It amazes me that someone actually spent money to make it that bad.

There's another car, XKR I think.  This is also louder than normal but instead of a wretched drone from an exhaust, you hear the shimmy of the V8.  Which is a great sound.

 

Yeah, it's all down to the quality of the sound, which is often due to having something big and powerful to start with, rather than sticking a drainpipe exhaust on something small. One of my neighbours has a big V-twin Aprilia, for instance, which sounds superb. A lad further down the road has some noisy exhaust on his scooter, which sounds absolutely awful!😀

I've got a powerflow exhaust on my Fiesta 1.6 zetec S and although it doesn't spit flames or give you 'gunshots' you know it's there, especially on the overrun. To be honest, if you do a lot of motorway driving the 'droning' will do your head in. Don't forget also that any sort of exhaust mod will make you the target for every bell end in a golf gti, who feel it is there duty to get in front of you, usually in a 'do or die' maneuver!