Consensus also elects our politicians and makes the laws we live by.
F(*& the OEM filters. Consensus is meaningless without data to back it up.
The dealer is 15 miles away and open 9-5 Mon-Fri. The autoparts store is down the street. So, I'll stick with the $6 cheapo purolator filters that I can purchased ANY day of the week within 5 minutes of stepping out the front door. With sales, rebates, and bulk purchases, some of my filters cost nothing. I also don't care to stock up on filters or go out of my way to plan maintenance.
With the 6i came out, it took a good year or so for aftermarket filters and online stores to carry the filter. The couple of Mazda dealers around here were charging upwards of $12+ for the filter and 2 o-rings. And, the o-rings weren't inclusive at first. They charged you for the cartridge, and each o-ring separately. Rockauto has the Wix for
Its in the consumers best interest to have a well performing filter at a reasonable price. We call that competition. Purolator still claims that the filter worked perfectly even though it looked like it was squashed.
I just don't understand how the dealers(and filter manufacturers) can charge more for less. The cartridge doesn't have any steel to it. There is no bypass. There is no ADBV. I don't care to pay a dealer premium for less.
The pureone was actually cheaper then the OEM from the dealer. I just don't care how it looked like when it was removed. There is no argument to the Pureone Micronic filtration. The particle counts here prove it to be a top notch filter. I just think that their assembly line tolerance needs looking into.
BTW, I've seen various OEM filters fail over the year. So, IMO, its in the "manufacturer's best interest" to get the lowest price possible to assist the bottom line--profit. Don't automatically assume that consensus is correct. I have installed enough aftermarket mechanical and maintenance parts on my vehicle that performed better then what was equipped from the factory. Also, don't assume that I hate OEM. There is a range of select OEM parts that I would not touch from some aftermarket suppliers.