I suppose a post like this doesn’t really belong on this site, but what the hell, it wouldn’t really be a blog if we didn’t go on a tangent now and again would it. So I’ll call this category “In Other News”.

First I’ll set this up with a little backstory. I drive a Nissan Xterra. That pretty much wraps up the backstory. Anyway, I take the car to the dealer to get the oil changed and it also happens to be time for the 30,000 mile maintenance. I know, I could take it somewhere else besides the Nissan dealer and get this done much cheaper. Actually the oil change price is relatively competetive with the other places that I would consider taking it if you don’t consider the 7 Minute E-Z-Quik Lube’s that charge 12.95. But I don’t always trust those places since I’ve had some bad experiences with them before (looks like yer’ oll pans got a dent in it).

So the Nissan service department quotes me a price of around $709 to do the whole 30,000 mile maintenance. I hurriedly tell them “thatsok, I think I’ll just have the oil changed this time around”. The service manager tells me that they will go ahead and inspect all the usual 30,000 mile stuff for free just to see if anything is in need of immediate repair. I begin hearkening back to experiences with the Jim Bob’s Auto Repair’s of the world that I used to deal with and expect them to try to screw me. Oddly enough, they do the inspection and it doesn’t happen. “We changed the oil and everything looked fine except (here we go) your In-Cabin Microfilter needs to be replaced,” he says.

I ask him how much it is and he tells me it will be $89. I tell him I think I’ll do that next time I’m in. I pay for the oil change and head home where I promptly start checking online for this filter. I check out the excellent Xterra Owner’s Club forums and bingo, the first search I do there brings up a link to XterraParts.com. I find the filter there for $27 plus shipping which will bring the total to about $37. No tax. Just like that I saved myself 50 bucks.

Not content to just take the first deal I see, I search around and find MyNissanParts.com and they have it for 21.99 plus shipping. No tax :). I order this one for a grand total of $30.49. I got it via FedEx today and I’ll probably install it tomorrow. You can’t beat saving $60 with about 10 minutes of searching.