Give the premium guard XL versions a try (Carquest premium, Microguard select, STP XL, among others). New Mobil 1 filters appear to be of upgraded quality as well if you’re wanting to stick with Walmart availability
First Brands (Fram) bankruptcy
- Thread starter Alien
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Didn't Purolator coat their filters in grippy stuff at one point? I haven't bought one of them in so long, I don't know if they still do.
The yellow cans were all grippy paint.
Reminds me of Soylent Green ... the elites got steak and real meat, and the rest of the masses got Soylent Green.
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Yeah the yellowish Purolator pure ones. I purchased a few for a Yamaha r1 years ago, but ended up returning them because they had paint over spray all over the baseplate
We’ll see. I bought the remaining extra and tough guards from rock auto. Also bought all the European brands to try as well as Denso.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
What do you consider "high end"?
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What I consider high end would be mid fi for most...
In the late 80's early 90's If my memory is correct brands like Onkyo, Harmon Kardon moved from Japan to Malaysia to now China. If the Pro Av world I would have thought the Yamaha digital mixers would still be made in Japan but even thats changing.
Music Tribe purchased Tannoy and moved some if not all production to China, Celestion moved to China but now some production returned to the UK.
Even B&W speakers, most lower to mid models made in China!
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Yeah, I have a set of UK-made B&W 802's, but was disappointed to see that Paradigm (Canadian) also moved their lower level speakers to China, from Canada.
Bryston (Canada) is still made here, and they are now making their own speakers (they merged with Axiom) here in Ontario, and they are a better value than B&W IMHO, though without the prestige.
McIntosh is, AFAIK, still made in the US, as are a few of the higher end amp manufacturers. As far as Pro AV, I think Yorkville is still made in Canada?
Yeah, HK, Denon, Onkyo, Marantz even Rotel all changed hands many times and are now just basically box store stuff owned by Samsung. Rotel is now headquartered in China, after being owned by B&W for a while (B&W changed hands, consumer audio was spun-off).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harman_International
It's a pretty sad state of affairs.
That said, anything that I would consider truly "high end" is still made in the West, but that's of course due to the audience. If you are dropping $250K on a set of speakers, they better not be "hencho el PRC".
Shout out to Danley Sound Labs for leading the sound quality revolution. I think Canada's days of world leading audio research are now a faint glimmer of the past.
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Way back in my early days I think it was 1988, I purchased a pair of B&W Matrix 3 series 2 speakers. I was only a few years out of high school but I loved music and had a passion for audio ( I have made my living doing all things audio ) but in 1988 I paid $2,000 a set for those speakers, I still have those wonderful made in England works of art! The $2 a set speakers would be ($5,461.48 in todays money, inflation calculator ).
and I was dirt poor back then, if I recall I made less than $6 an hour in 1988 but I has a passion for sound and the good stuff and was willing to work hard and overtime to get it!
The thing is, as good as those speakers sounded at first listen a BIG part of my purchase decision was the pride of ownership I would have owning a work of art, hand made in England.
The issue I see it is when high end production went overseas to China with some of these great brands I didn't see a price cut on our end only more profit for the Company!
Ford, GM, Mopar, the American/Canadian bus trio-poly(Gillig, New Flyer and NovaBus) would more affected by BYD than Tesla. China will make moves with a new admin.
I'll be holding onto my Paradigm Studio 60's until the day I die!
Was at my local Walmart tonight, wife likes their Vanilla Yogurt, though I'd see if the Mobil1 M110a was back in stock and they had 3, so I got one. Checking out the filter shelves, Fram and the Supertech not one fitment for a Honda. I'm not buying ahead because of the uncertainty right now, who knows, Champion could get resurrected or other good options might appear. If I get down to the O'Reilly in Towson Md I could snag a couple of the premium Microguards.
This has been covered adnausem, but what i find most upsetting is the disruption of so many communities and families because of the lack of moral and ethical compass in some segments of corporate America. As I was looking at the wall of filters and comparing it to missing bricks in a support wall, wondering how long the wall will stand.
This has been covered adnausem, but what i find most upsetting is the disruption of so many communities and families because of the lack of moral and ethical compass in some segments of corporate America. As I was looking at the wall of filters and comparing it to missing bricks in a support wall, wondering how long the wall will stand.
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Apparently, the Greenville plant is ceasing production earlier than planned. There is some sort of dispute with Honda over ownership of some of the production equipment. Because of this dispute, Honda has pulled their contract. I tried to link the article but was unable. The article was in the Greenville paper on 3/13/26.
Found some articles about that. The 2nd link has a lot of info.
https://www.wdtn.com/news/local-new...utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_WDTN-TV
https://www.dailyadvocate.com/2026/03/13/fram-ends-production-sends-employees-home/
Imagine that...the humble A02 is now the subject of a "custody battle".
Maybe we’ll get some Tokyo Roki A02s. That would be something good to come out of this…
The dispute is between First Brands and whomever financed there machinery. It does not seem to involve Honda directly.
Why Honda pulled there orders is odd. As long as they were spitting out oil filters I am unsure why Honda cared. So I am guessing Honda was ready to split anyway and this looked like a good excuse. So they must have a supplier lined up.
