When did car batteries get so expensive?

Went to get front window tint redone on my Tundra. Battery went dead from
Doors being open.
I did notice in the cold weather it was harder to start.
Decided to look for a new battery.

They want 250-300 bucks.

Watched the “project farm”guy do a comparison of 6-7 batteries. He rates the Walmart everstart just as good. It’s 135 dollars. So that’s what I will get.

He said half of the US batteries are made by Johnson controls anyway.

Just after January 6 2020 is my best bet.

^^^
Beat me to it.

I went thru 2 duralast in a year. Bought an everstart and never looked back.

What I've noticed isn't the price so much as the lifespan of a typical car battery. I remember that my average car battery used to last 4-5 years, sometimes longer. Now at 3 years, I'm checking to see if it needs to be replaced (they seem to give out shortly after the 3 year mark for me now).

When I discussed this with the folks at the Ford service department, the manager said it's because newer vehicles have so many computer systems that are always on and draining small amounts of power (he wasn't trying to sell me a new battery at the time). Seems to make sense, and I try to keep a battery tender hooked up to my truck more often at home now. Always keep one on the motorcycle.

Dealer prices are ridiculous. I had to buy one yesterday, thought the starter went out so had it towed to the mechanic. It was the battery…$300.

I buy Continental batteries from a local distributor for less than half of that.

Car battery prices started climbing in early 2020 and they are never coming back down. Stick with Wal-Mart for batteries because there isn't another place as easy to warranty one if needed. Buy the most expensive variant they have that fits your car/truck. I replace the batteries in my personal and work vehicles at the 3 year mark no matter what.

I have been surprised that the dealer Motorcraft batteries for my trucks have been competitively priced.

I've always had good luck with Duralast Gold in my trucks. They normally last 4-5 years.

But I think UZ has a good point about newer vehicles putting more of a drain on the battery. I have an older truck ('09), so the draw on my batteries might be a bit less than on newer vehicles, hence the batteries lasting longer.

The last two Duralast Gold I bought came with 3-year warranties. They lasted 32mos and 38 mos, respectively. Those went into '12 and '17 model vehicles. One was covered under warranty so we'll see how it's replacement holds up but I'm likely going with Walmart next time. I quit Interstate batteries 8-9 years ago after they changed their warranties and the new versions weren't worth chit.

I`m on my 2nd set of Duralast batteries from Auto Zone. I have about 6.5 years on this set. Had my 2003 Dodge 5.9 for almost 21 years and this is my 3rd set of batteries. The other 2 sets lasted right at 7 years, and it looks like these will also. Going to have to bend over when they go bad.

We've used interstate batteries with no issues in the 1998 3500 dually for as long as I remember.
But a coworker has a 2014 3500, uses interstate, and replaces them every 2 years on the nose.🤷‍♂️

Winner. #FJB

my last set of Interstate MTZ AGM’s went 6-7 years. They where on national back order( and now $800 a set), so this time went with NAPA agm legend premium for $500 set. We shall see

I think that the stop/start feature that kills your engine at every stop sign or red light requires the more expensive battery. That's what I was told at the Chevy dealer.

WTH?

Friend of mine owns a mechanic shop and they had to stop carrying Interstates a few years back for that very reason. However, Interstate figured out what ever the screw up was and now they're back to being quality products again.

My daughters car has that. I hate it. Her battery went out a couple months ago and I just put a Walmart Everstart on it and no problems. The Everstart was $30+ cheaper than the ones at the auto store and has a 4yr warranty.

x2

Costco has the best prices on batteries

I think it is a conspiracy. Batteries used to last 5-6 years all the time. I think they figured out how to make them last half as long so they could sell twice as many.

Go to Costco and get an Interstate battery with a 36 month warranty. Had one recently that went bad on an F-150. It cost me $120 in 2022. Took it out and went to Costco and swapped it out at the counter. No questions, no hassle.

Y'all are a both a year off....2021.

UZ is correct on battery drain. When I had my corvette, when I had my knee replaced, They said to attach a battery tender to it so all the computers would keep functioning. You dont want those to lose power.

I'll go with Everlast every time.

Started carrying a battery jump start thingy.

I've started buying them from Walmart after noticing the name brand batteries didn't last much longer than the warranty. If fact, it's made me wonder how they build them to fail so close to the rated life. I have a good friend who replaces them once the warranty period ends no matter what.

Went to Walmart. Took old battery out in parking lot. Went in and picked up this one for 109, ha s. 2year warranty.
They knocked if 12 dollar core charge. Installed.

Reminder set for 2 years.

Had an Optima red top in my tahoe for at least 6 years and then a battery post broke off. Since I was going to trade it in sometime soon I went with a walmart battery. It died after a couple of months and they swapped it out at no charge. Was working fine when I traded it in last month.

Answer: When joe biden took office. FJB.

Yet another Covid sham

Replaced the 2 in my 09 Chevy diesel with AC Delco's for I believe $ 135 a piece. The previous Delco's lasted 8 years.

As already mentioned, Costco interstates for the win. They unfortunately have changed their warranty to prorated value refund instead of full replacement up to 36 mos. They still have the best price for standard lead acids.

Best performance and life will come from and AGM. Be prepared to pay more for one.

Interstate AGM's for the win.

Gave up on Neverstarts and all lead acid batteries a looooooong time ago.

the costco interstate AGM’s dont have the same specs FWIW. Specifically weight.

I just found out about battery price today

They went way up when the importation of foreign lead was regulated differently ... whenever that was. Covid didn't help. There are two main manufacturers of auto batteries in the US just like garage door openers.



Please share the source.



Dramatic. Funny thing is Walmart will test the battery and if it passes they will not warranty it ... at least not at our local store. We have a much more expensive tester than they do yet they beat customers around until they relent and go elsewhere when we have printed proof their Walmart battery is crap.



I can't prove an AGM battery should cost more to make and sell but I can confirm an AutoStop vehicle needs a higher rated battery.



Except auto battery failures are about 20% as common as they were in the 1990's, at least at the dealer level. They've never been more reliable aside from a couple Covid years when everything was junk. In the side post era, we'd go through probably a dozen bad batteries per week per technician in the summer. I bet we see 2-3 per week overall (not per technician) now. What is the source of info saying they don't last as long? Not shilling here, hurts me too...hard to sell something way overpriced.

Optima battery for my vechiles!!! Wont consider anything else

Optima used to make a very good long-lasting battery if you could live with their limited storage capacity. At my battery shop, we used to see a lot of them coming in at 10+ years old. Their QC seems to have suffered greatly in recent years so now they are hit or miss.

Odyssey holds the high high ground for longevity and capacity but they are too expensive for most people.

Marc

I usually go Odyssey when my OEMs are shot, at least in my trucks. Wife's German car has some pretty peculiar amperage requirements so we went back with OEM at five years, and also with the first hint of an electrical gremlin.

Interesting, thanks for the info. I’ve only bought the lead acids from there. Usually get 3-4 years out of them with Texas climates, which isn’t great, but it also isn’t terrible given the cost.

I'll keep that in mind for my wife's Passat.

Yup, just double-check... you may be able to use the same size LA/AGM that comes out of it and get it from any supplier. With the wife's car, a new battery has to be registered to the car in the car's programming/computer. It has to be within certain parameters for the BMS, so I just let the dealer do it. We were in Korea at the time and the dealer there was generally cheaper than here in the U.S., so that helped too.

Yup, just double-check... you may be able to use the same size LA/AGM that comes out of it and get it from any supplier. With the wife's car, a new battery has to be registered to the car in the car's programming/computer. It has to be within certain parameters for the BMS, so I just let the dealer do it. We were in Korea at the time and the dealer there was generally cheaper than here in the U.S., so that helped too.[/quote]

Noted. Thank you!

For you guys that hate the autostop feature:

https://www.autostopeliminator.com/

I installed one in my 2020 Silverado and brother put one in his 2021 Jeep Gladiator. Works great and fairly easy to install. Silverado is a little more complicated than Jeep, but very do-able for the mechanically inclined. Took me leass than 45 minutes.

They can cause intermittent battery drain as well. Just fixed a Silverado last week with a 275 mA drain. ALWAYS defeat the feature on GM vehicles every time you drive if you have the button.

A lot of times you can code the feature to remain off, like with FORScan with Fords, Autel, or other various coding software/tools, E-Sys, Carly, etc.

Sure but the 2019+ computers for GM are expensive to hack. You know, the ones with AutoStop and all the more intrusive "features" ...

I wouldn't know. Haven't owned an American GM product in 20 years (I did own a Korean 2012 Chevy Spark for a couple of years recently). But I'm also not talking about hacking or changing software. Most of these tools simply enable you to toggle features on or off. I use FORScan on my F350... just plug it into the OBD port, open the program, connect to the truck, and start enabling or disabling the features I want or don't want. Pretty easy and just cost me the price of the adapter.

Did the same on the wife's German car with an app on my phone. Now it defaults to AutoStop "OFF" on start-up. Again, no hacking.

I own a semi truck and put new batteries in it yesterday. A smooth $1433. Cry me a river about 2 or 300 bucks lol

Don't get 'just' the Everstart, it needs to be the Everstart MAXX. Yes, the MAXX batteries are good - last 6-7 years for me!

Nice!

Click the link and scroll down to the government regulations part.
Strict Government Regulations

Did the same on our 2020 Jeep Wrangler Eco diesel.