Eddie,
Yes Fram makes a crappy oil filter, but they were sufficient and worked fine with the typical 3K to 5K oil changes, and were probably one of the best selling filters on the market back in their day. For about $3.00 you got a filter that was good for 3K-5K miles
As many people started to switch to synthetic oils with longer oil change intervals it demanded better filters to last through those longer oil change intervals....Fram never did come out with a premium filter to meet the demands of the longer oil change intervals...Bad Move by Fram!
That happened about the same time that the Chinese started flooding the market with counterfeit Fram filters because of their popularity as a well known US brand. The counterfeits were not even as good as the worst Fram filter and caused numerous engine failures.
The problem was that the consumer and even auto shops and part stores could not tell if they were getting a real Fram or a counterfeit until the filter was cut open...I'm not sure that Fram even could tell until they opened up the filter. That left Fram to tell the consumers that they had bought and used a counterfeit filter that was not made by Fram and they would not honor any warranty or pay for engine damage caused by the counterfeit Fram filters.
Once the word got out about Fram not standing behind their filters (the counterfeits), it was a big public relations nightmare. That marked the beginning of the end for Fram. The fact that they survived this long is amazing.
...Rich