My 98 came with 41-401 plugs which were replaced after a few years with 41-921 plugs. These were platinum and were good for 100000 miles. After 75K I'm replacing them with???

I find the replacements aren't available: the replacemetns are iridium @ $6 per and the number is 41-101. What happened to reasonable priced standard spark plugs? I dont want to change brands but this is a problem because I can't see 100K plugs in a car at 135K miles.

Can someone tell me what happened?

just go with some copper plugs then.

The Iridums are a good replacement and the car could make another 100K in reality.

However maybe trying another place or a dealer will get you the results you seek.

Eh, it'* designed to run with the irridiums. You could go copper, but why? You can typically find the irrids for about 4 or 5 per if you look around, and you'll never have to replace them again. I did mine when my engine was around 120k, and the original plugs were still just fine... the only reason I replaced them is because I didn't feel like returning spark plugs...