Seems funny but there is no such negative opinion towards K&N filters that I have heard of in the UK.
Well with all the rain you guys get, is there dust there?
You would actually be surprised.
Not dust for the same reasons as in the US, such as dusty desert driving conditions but in the big Cities such as London were the particulate pollution is so bad that the local government use street cleaning trucks at night to wash down the roads, especially near the EU pollution monitoring equipment (no I am not joking on that one!)
London Black Cabs have been using K&N filters for many years, with no issues, and I did some digging and found out the cross reference fitment for my T 4 which is the one for a Vauxhall Zafira 1.8 petrol 2006 onwards.
The older Fairway, TX1 and TX2 all have standard listed fitments and have been widely used for years.
Bu then air filter usage seems to be somewhat different in the UK than the US, for example it was always easy to spot a poorly serviced turbo diesel prior to commonrail and other high pressure systems, when the air filter was neglected the car would smoke badly, black smoke due to running over rich.
This doesn't seem to be an issue with newer diesel tech, possibly a byproduct of higher pressure injection or possibly the introduction of EGR systems, who really knows.
But I do know that round London most people I know that use vehicles for work will change their air filter every 10/20k.
I suspect this may not be needed if they drove on motorway all the time.
To get an idea of how bad London air quality is look at the cycle couriers and motorcycle. couriers, their faces are always filthy at the end of a days work. Not something that happens when riding in the countryside.
And I will just make one comment. It doesn't actually rain as much as some people think in the UK, an in fact rainfall etc are very regionally different. Not to mention temperatures.
For example the West of Scotland and the East of Scotland have totally different climates, West is much more mild summer and winter, East is much more extreme, much colder in winter and slightly warmer in summer.
Just because a country is small doesn't mean it is like a big Landlocked US state, climate is very variable.
