Several ferritic stabilized and austenitic stainless steels were investigated under cyclic high temperature corrosion conditions in order to assist material engineers in the choice of materials assigned to automotive exhaust systems. Cycle conditions were chosen to be representative of an actual vehicle use. The importance of spalling phenomena was confirmed. Due to their low thermal expansion coefficients, the ferritic stabilized grades behave fairly well, even in these rather severe high temperature conditions. The influence of nature and concentration in stabilizing elements (Ti, Nb) on the cyclic oxidation behaviour is pointed out.