What are the gains from removing the stock intake parts?

I am wondering how much better it is to remove the two big air baffles and replace it with a $200-300
intake system.

Sorry I have to ask again but most of the links in the faq are long dead.

The engine bay looks a lot cleaner, and you can get a bit more airflow to the engine. On another note, some systems only make the engine bay look nice, but they actually decrease maximum HP. You do get a little different sound from an aftermarket intake.

Agree. My wagon isn't a racecar by any means but the stock airbox and snorkel deal looks terrible. I ditched it all purely for aesthetics and the improved sound quality is just a bonus.

What aspects do you not like about the stock setup? It is fine for a stock engine. The two big boxes are Helmholtz resonators (look it up) that cancel out unpleasant resonances. You will get more intake noise if you remove them.

Forget 2 or 3 hundred bucks!

A hockey puck, two 45* 3" pvc elbows, a 2" section of 3" pvc pipe, a 3" rubber pvc coupler (with clamps), and a cheap cone filter, and you're in it for 30 bucks.

Leave it stock and enjoy the quiet cruising.The only thing a CAI does is cost you money and gives you the illusion of speed by changing your engines intake sounds.The performance increase if any is miniscule at best!

2-300 bucks is a waste. You won't see much in performance gains, and you'll probably lose power (by it taking in warm engine bay air). If you're gonna do one, go the PVC way....much cheaper and just as effective (and moreso if you can get the air filter in the inner fender or someway around the radiator (like behind the headlamp if you build a custom sealed box).
Also, don't waste your money on K+N filters

How is swapping out the intermediate resonator for PVC any better? There's several rough transitions between the PVC pipes that will negate any smoothness improvement in the rest of the pipes.

For this kind of money a tune from pcmperformance.com is a much better bang for your buck. The next improvement is shocks.

What kind of shocks? KYB? There are many out there. I have moroso on there now.

Thanks
Randy