Eastern Manufacturing Inc 40420 New Direct Fit Catalytic Converter (Non-CARB Compliant)

All three of my mom's 2002 Nissan Altima 3.5SE's cats were bad, so I researched and found Eastern to have somewhat favorable reviews. Besides, their parts are made in the USA, so what could go wrong? I decided to place an order through rockauto.com then prep the car for the replacement.The cat arrived in a box with "Eastern Catalytic" on the outside and no padding on the inside, so the cat punched a few holes in it during shipment. I figured it wasn't a big deal. When I pulled the cat out of the box and attempted to install it, I could not get the flange's holes to line up with the rear cat's flange holes; they were 1/16" to 3/16" off, depending on the hole. Also, the flange welds were very close to the holes, making it difficult to install fasteners - stupid.Fuming at this point, since I was hoping to get my mom's daily driver back on the road quickly, I called Eastern tech support. The tech who answered the phone mentioned that Eastern had recently been purchased by AP Exhaust, so I may have received an AP part. He suggested that I return it to rockauto.com and ask specifically for an Eastern part as a substitute. Um, ok. That really instills a lot of confidence - smh. I initially decided to get a replacement from rockauto.com because the price was so good, but I ultimately ended up shelling out an additional $250 for a Magnaflow (part no. 49324) cat at my local O'Reilly's so I could finish the job and move on. The Magnaflow fit perfectly.