Yes, I must say I'm quite impressed at how little noise even a performance-oriented late-model car can be these days. They seem to think through those issues a lot more carefully than in days of yore. When you encounter a loud newish car, chances are the owner put in an aftermarket muffler (or even most of a new exhaust system, usually focusing on the less regulated part from the cat back) to let more noise out, either in the hope of getting more performance or as a matter of taste.
Some cars are just quieter and-or less dependent on the muffler for noise suppression, too. Of the three late-80s, early-90s four-cylinder Toyotas in the family, all had near-complete muffler failures of a very typical nature for that make and era -- the flimsy endplates rust out around the inlet and outlet pipes. This leaves the muffler hanging from the car body (to which it is securely and redundantly attached, as well it shoud be) as the exhaust flows around it... without making what you would call obnoxious amounts of noise.
Note that the mufflers on all of these are at the far downstream end. Some combination of the muffling effect of the catalytic converter (which is rather far forward), the long undercar pipes, and the small engine just make it a relatively quiet car, even when the muffler is doing little or no objective good.
--Joe
