Well, understand, I'm not standing up for them but... IMO, we don't know the conditions in which those that did fail, where under. I have myself seen where an amsoil filter failed, it, is constructed well, so does that mean it's a bad design?. Did the frams that did fail, have underlying situations that caused this failure? maybe, maybe those were older designed filters, and now maybe there is some basic minor differences from before?, Purolator, cardboard endcaps? Maybe, like many oil companies that are now mixing blends of mineral and pao to make full synths, some oil filter companies will start using these cardboard end's on more filters because maybe theres more evidence of them actually working than not and this surely would be one way to cut the expense of the manufacturing process to up the profits of the company as well. You can't say fram is the new kid on the block nor that they have no experience so I don't think at this time will I dismiss this as shody just yet. Like many things, many people have heard of the construction of these filters and such, but I haven't heard or seen actual evidence to show where there is a consistant problem with this material used which people call cardboard which IMO, appears not to be such but some other type of paper material which if you think about it, what is most filter media's consist of or had consist of? Maybe paper of sorts?