Which battery?

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I have the choice between 2 Walmart batteries with identical CCA, one Maxx with 3 year warranty + 2 year prorated, or one Platinum AGM with 5 year warranty for $16 more. Which one should I get and why?
 
Since CCA rating is the same. I would think the Maxx should suit your needs. I have one that's going on 7.5 years and seems to be going strong.16 bucks is getting you two more years coverage, might be worth it if you plan on keeping the car for a long time.
 
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The Platinum is most likely better quality, hence the 5 year warranty. Is that 5 year warranty prorated or not?
 
AGM is a better battery than a flooded. You'd probably notice that the terminals won't corrode like flooded batteries. I have one in my car, it's 8 years old and still going strong.
 
Why do you need a battery for a current model year BRZ or AMG? Just go in and get it under warranty.
 
Caution about Walmart battery warranties. I don't know if they're all this way or not, but here's how it worked when I took a Maxx back to Walmart after about 3.5 years. I had two options:

1) I could pay about $60 and use the proration. My Maxx had a 3 year free replacement and 5 year proration or something to that effect. I was just over the free replacement period, and would have had to pay most of the cost of a new one. But their policy states that any replacement batteries don't have a warranty.

2) I could just buy a new one for $75 and have another 3 year free replacement warranty.

I drove the MDX there and took the battery out and carried it in. They didn't know that, but I was about half stuck there...I could have reinstalled it, and drove across town, but it was failing fast. So I just took option 2, and bought a new one and now have 3 more years' worth of coverage. But I wasn't impressed with their policy on replacement batteries not having any sort of warranty, and I wasn't going to pay 75% of the price of a new one to be out of luck if it failed a year later.

Are all battery warranty policies like this? I don't think they were that way when I worked at Advance in college -- I think every new battery had a new battery warranty, whether it was a new purchase or a warranty purchase.
 
My WM battery warranty replacement went from the date of the original purchase 3.5 years back, so it was mostly useless for the new battery. They punched out the ancient date on the little calendar sticker thingy.
 
Wal-Mart is selling AGM batteries? And is that 5 year warranty a 5 year free replacement warranty, or the exact same thing as the MAXX warranty which is 3 years free replace plus 2 years prorate?
 
All warranties are like that. No warranty gets "reset" once manufacture replaces the faulty part. Otherwise, somebody would get it free "forever".

I am not denying that sometimes it had been possible to abuse the warranty to that effect but that is rare.
 
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Caution about Walmart battery warranties. I don't know if they're all this way or not, but here's how it worked when I took a Maxx back to Walmart after about 3.5 years. I had two options:

1) I could pay about $60 and use the proration. My Maxx had a 3 year free replacement and 5 year proration or something to that effect. I was just over the free replacement period, and would have had to pay most of the cost of a new one. But their policy states that any replacement batteries don't have a warranty.

2) I could just buy a new one for $75 and have another 3 year free replacement warranty.

I drove the MDX there and took the battery out and carried it in. They didn't know that, but I was about half stuck there...I could have reinstalled it, and drove across town, but it was failing fast. So I just took option 2, and bought a new one and now have 3 more years' worth of coverage. But I wasn't impressed with their policy on replacement batteries not having any sort of warranty, and I wasn't going to pay 75% of the price of a new one to be out of luck if it failed a year later.

Are all battery warranty policies like this? I don't think they were that way when I worked at Advance in college -- I think every new battery had a new battery warranty, whether it was a new purchase or a warranty purchase.


Yes, it is fair too. Otherwise one would not ever need to pay for replacement batteries, every three years a new battery for free and with 3 year free replacement?
 
Originally Posted By: Vikas
All warranties are like that. No warranty gets "reset" once manufacture replaces the faulty part. Otherwise, somebody would get it free "forever".


I can't think of any other warranty like this, actually. If you buy an alternator with a lifetime warranty, and it conks out, you bring it back and your replacement alternator carries that same lifetime warranty.

Using a proration example, if you buy 80,000 mile tires that last 40,000 miles, and you warranty them back to the manufacturer for the prorated amount, and buy new tires, your new tires don't have a voided treadlife warranty -- they have a brand new warranty.

A proration is supposed to allow the customer to "sell back" to the manufacturer the remaining life that SHOULD have been left in that product, as indicated by the duration of the warranty (miles, years, etc). Using that concept, I believe Walmart SHOULD have given me a prorate back from my old battery that didn't last the advertised life, I would buy a new battery with that amount off, and my new battery SHOULD have a brand new warranty on it.

This is how battery warranties used to work. It's how most warranties still work.
 
Originally Posted By: kozanoglu
Yes, it is fair too. Otherwise one would not ever need to pay for replacement batteries, every three years a new battery for free and with 3 year free replacement?


What if you bought a new battery that lasted 6 months, you got a new free one w/ no warranty, and that lasted 6 months?

The way most warranties work (see above), the new product contains the same guarantee as the old product, as it should. If it fails during the warranty period, that SHOULD be a problem for the manufacturer, not for the customer. I'd be upset if I went through 2 new batteries in a year and had nothing to show for it in the end.

Break a Craftsman ratchet 100 times, they'll give you 100 new ratchets. Every replacement ratchet has the same guarantee that the first one did: "if it fails, we'll replace it for free".

If you have a new TV and it breaks within the first 6 months, does Sony give you a new TV that has a voided warranty? Of course not -- the replacement product carries the same warranty that the first one did.

Battery warranties are one of the few that work they way they do...at least that I can think of.
 
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