My good deed of the day was to help somebody find the right oil filter at Walmart.
The book said their Mercedes needed a Fram 8481 available in both Extraguard and Ultra variants as well as being available in Walmart under the Mobil and K&N brands.
I handed him the Extraguard and he went on his way. He wasn't the kind of customer who I could have had a conversation with about filters, including the advice that I wanted to give that he'd be better off buying a German OE filter.
After he went, I thought I'd compare filters and prices. The Extraguard's shelf price was $10.46. Looking online right now, it is far less than that. It seems Walmart discounts certain products for online purchases even if you do store pickup. At Rockauto, the same filter is $3.xx and other economy brands are even cheaper. The filter itself was very cheap looking and Made in China.
The Ultra version of the filter was not on the shelf but was $16.xx.
The Mobil 1 filter was even more expensive. I can't find it online at Walmart but it looks like it was probably around $20. It was higher quality but I believe it was also made in China.
Lastly, I looked at K&N, thinking it would be the most expensive. It turned out to be $8.64 and made in Korea. Quality was definitely higher than the Fram and at least as good as the Mobil 1 filter.
So I searched for the gentleman and handed him the K&N telling him it was cheaper and higher quality. Ideally I would have been able to explain to him that getting hold of a German filter would be best and in fact, the Mercedes dealership was not that far away. But compared to picking up an overpriced Fram or Mobil filter or even an overpriced OE filter from the dealer, I think it was a good result.
The only weird thing is that while the K&N website lists the filter I found as the right one, K&N cross reference it to a different Fram than that 8481.
The book said their Mercedes needed a Fram 8481 available in both Extraguard and Ultra variants as well as being available in Walmart under the Mobil and K&N brands.
I handed him the Extraguard and he went on his way. He wasn't the kind of customer who I could have had a conversation with about filters, including the advice that I wanted to give that he'd be better off buying a German OE filter.
After he went, I thought I'd compare filters and prices. The Extraguard's shelf price was $10.46. Looking online right now, it is far less than that. It seems Walmart discounts certain products for online purchases even if you do store pickup. At Rockauto, the same filter is $3.xx and other economy brands are even cheaper. The filter itself was very cheap looking and Made in China.
The Ultra version of the filter was not on the shelf but was $16.xx.
The Mobil 1 filter was even more expensive. I can't find it online at Walmart but it looks like it was probably around $20. It was higher quality but I believe it was also made in China.
Lastly, I looked at K&N, thinking it would be the most expensive. It turned out to be $8.64 and made in Korea. Quality was definitely higher than the Fram and at least as good as the Mobil 1 filter.
So I searched for the gentleman and handed him the K&N telling him it was cheaper and higher quality. Ideally I would have been able to explain to him that getting hold of a German filter would be best and in fact, the Mercedes dealership was not that far away. But compared to picking up an overpriced Fram or Mobil filter or even an overpriced OE filter from the dealer, I think it was a good result.
The only weird thing is that while the K&N website lists the filter I found as the right one, K&N cross reference it to a different Fram than that 8481.
