Autozone is discontinuing the Mobil 1 oil filter that fits the Nailhead.......

nabbed the last one in Sebastian and at the Babcock street location in Palm Bay. Malabar rd and Whickham rd were already out.

 

FYI: This is definitely a small window of opportunity here ...

I got 4 more of the Mobil M1-203 filters tonight from different Auto Zone stores (my son's pine wood derby car will have to wait another night). It looks like they retail for about $10/each around here. I was told by a manager of one store that as far as he knows, it is just Auto Zone making a decision to discontinue selling these filters rather than that the filters are per se being cut from production ... although if demand is not present, then neighborhood high-volume retail auto parts stores will stop ordering them from the manufacturer, etc. I said, "Yes, sir."

He also said the following:
1. that Auto Zone company policy is to pull discontinued items and send them back up the chain (to regional parts warehouse) and not sell them to the public, so if you catch one for a penny, then take it; and
2. the Auto Zone notice to the stores was sent last week, but some stores may be behind on pulling the filters and also that this M1-203 filter was part of a list of many other parts also being discontinued.

Yet a different store just gave me 2 filters .. not even having to spend 2 cents on the deal. This guy asked me what I wanted them for. I think he thought I was a commercial account holder or something. When I explained that I had several old Buicks that use this filter and parts are just getting harder to find, he put them in a bag and told me I could have them, but that he better never see them again since the co. policy is not to sell them, etc.

A guy at yet a different store was aware of this issue and gave me the name of a manager who will be in tomorrow who just pulled a bunch of the Mobil M1-203 filters off the shelf earlier today ... I will discreetly ask him tomorrow if he needs any "trash" taken out tomorrow ... around lunch time ... on me. We'll see.

 

yeah, the counter monkey at the Sebastian store saw the price and queried the manager. he said the corp directive was to trash them.

 

I went to an Autozone and asked for the filters and got two for a penny each. I then said I'd like to buy them from your other stores as well. Today I went to the same store and picked up five more with no charge and they brought them there so I didn't have to drive around. The "manager" made some mention of there being a difference in whether the stores were supposed to discount them or dispose of them. I said "can't you just dispose of them to me?" He put them in a bag and said "it's your lucky day."

 

I called three stores here in Austin, and the one who had any said they wanted 9.99 for them or they would trash them. She said they had to spray paint them and make them unusable. The other stores I called and I think they lied (by the delay and hold time after looking in the computer) and said they were out of stock.

 

The other stores I called and I think they lied (by the delay and hold time after looking in the computer) and said they were out of stock.

so, we know we can't call the local Autozone and let them know we're looking for them.

these people have a VERY poor grasp of customer relations.

if they're just going to be throwing them in the trash/writing them off as a total loss anyways they ought to be putting them out in a display area or trying to get them to old car owners they know. instead they're going out of their way to make sure we can't buy them. morons.

 

You wont find any at the stores near me. My brother and I cleaned them all out. I think we picked up 14 of them total. The look on the cashier's face is pretty entertaining. Great score:laugh:

 

i made the mistake of calling before i went.. she looks it up, then says, " uuuh just a second..." a minute later, "yeah uh thats $10.99." So I say, "I thought that was being discontinued?!?" And the B**ch says, "oooooooh i had no idea. Anyway, that'll be $10.99."

F**k autozone's customer service :rant:

 

I stopped at 2 stores yesterday and was out of luck.

Seemed kind of stupid to use up gas driving around for filters.
But, if I had scored just one it would have paid off.

 

I assume this filter will fit my '66 Wildcat 401. Gonna try the store down the street at lunch.

 

I told my buddy about this at lunch- he scored 3 from cincy local 'zones on his way home from work for me! Sweet! Thanks for the tip.
First one's computer said to throw the items away- talked him out of them for nothing, second one had one and charged the penny. :beer cheers, ted

 

Darn!

The two in my neighborhood said "they already got rid of them" so I asked the follow up question and said "the garbage already went out". Smelled like a good lie to me. Oh well... It was worth a try.

Erik

 

so far i have bought 4 of them and i peeked in the boxes to find that two are grey, one is white and one is black..anybody have any other colors?

 

Those are the colors I have too. Judging by the fading on the boxes I would say the white ones are the oldest then the gray and the black ones are the newest. I'm peeling the stickers off so I can paint them white and put Mike Troms repro AC stickers on them and the stickers on the black ones come off easy but the white ones are a mess to get off.ou:

 

I found 1 out of 5 stores. i went to one store super nice and friendly sales person called a few places and knew what questions to ask as i was talking to the manager. the look from the one guy was funny where he rings it up. and is like uh. one cent. a hand him a dime and walk out. :laugh:

one of the stores that happened to be in the ghetto still had the name tag on the shelf however no filters (but a bunch of other green toped boxes were still there) they haven't done the throwing yet. however since a lot of the brothers drive the older buicks and their kinda popular they're all gone.
-nate

 

They had 2 at the autozone in a town 20 miles away, but as soon as the partsman read the computer and saw the "DESTROY" order, he ended the conversation and refused to sell them to me. I tried to talk him into letting me destroy them for him, but he wasn't interested. Oh well!

 

That's so wrong. What an ass and what a way to help out a paying customer.

 

Printed out a little road map last night and hit eight stores today after work. I found four filters but only managed to buy three of them. The last filter just happened to be in front of the wrong person behind the counter, who ran back to the shelf and then quickly entered $10.99 in the register ggrrrrr.... Oh well, it was an interesting treasure hunt.

Some stores had taken out that section and label, funny thing was this was at all stores that stacked them horizontally. The stores that stacked them vertically all had 1 filter left. I wish I would have had the experience of free oil filters falling off the shelf at some store, where there would have been many lined up to be harvested..

Many thanks for the heads up!

 

Didn't have time to stop at lunch so I had to stop after work. We only have 1 store near me. I stopped in and asked if they had any.

Guy at the counter looks it up in the computer and says "Yeah, says we have one in stock. Let's see if we can find it.".

So we walk over to the shelf and he finds it with a $9.99 tag on the shelf.

He says, "Here it is,nine ninety-nine.".

I said, "I'll take it." (I noticed the price in the computer when he looked it up, but he didn't).

When he gets to the register, I said "It may be discounted. I think I saw on the internet that it is reduced." (thanks to you guys :TU: ).

He scans it and looks at the register and his eyes get real big :shock: . He says "Discounted! Whoa, you aint kiddin'! . . . That'll be one penny?!."

I gave him a dollar with a big smile and waited for my change. I was tempted to grab a penny from the "leave a penny, take a penny" tray and pay him, but that just wouldn't be right - I'm no cheapskate you know! :laugh:

The next closest store is 20 miles away. I drive a Dodge Ram Hemi, so that one cent filter would cost me almost twenty bucks in gas ou:. It's almost worth it though to see the look on the sales person's face!

Thanks for the tip jimtash. Now someday I can tell my grandkids about the good ol' days when we bought oil filters for a penny!

V8Buick folks are the best! :beers2:

 

We have a case of these at the shop with a about an inch of dust on 'em. I think they are Shell brand. Dont get to many bbb in for service anymore. I switched to the 3.8 style oil filter adapter so I use the newer filters now. My local autozone said they sent theirs back. I would not be surprised to see bunch of them turn up on ebay! They had to go somewhere....o No: