no i didnt cut anything my CAI was engineered in australia and claims to be better than the TRD due to it being an exact copy BUT with few slight changes made to make it better EXAMPLE mandrel bends hehe as for price it all comes dwn to the air pod you buy too, cus my pod was expensive but the CAI with the base pod is $300 so obviously i payed more than that but i reckon i gotta a pretty good deal