86 300DSL, is center muffler important?

I am quoted $800+ to replace the center muffler and front pipe on my

1986 300sdl. I asked the mechanic if he could instead just run a straight pipe through to the rear muffler (I thought the center muffler was just a resonator). But mechanic says the center muffler is the main muffler and the rear muffler is the resonator, and therefore the car will be too loud without it. I've removed the resonator on another non-mercedes vehicle and it made almost no difference. So is it ok to do this?