Best place to buy car batteries?

[Clay]

Im sure, like everything else, you can probably buy car batteries cheaper at one or two places, and they are way cheaper than anywhere else.

Does anyone know where/what this place is? Sams Club? somewhere online? etc?

I think I need a battery for my Jeep.

thanks,
clay

 

[loony1]

I called autozone, walmart, and advanced auto before calling sams club. Called Sams and they told me $75 when the others were $95-100 for a 1998 toyota.
Sams got my money....

ETA: this was last week.

 

[amallen1]

I always buy mine out at the Rural King on Wabash. It's close to the house, and the prices are great.

 

[jeremy]

Do you have a Recycler near you. I buy Batteries there for like $20, usually right out of New wrecked cars...

 

[OneBadV8]

Also, some of the places that rebuild batteries will give you a better battery with a better warranty for a lot less than a new.

 

[handgun]

Sams club or wally world.. hands down cheapest place in indy for a new battery out the door.

 

[SaintsNSinners]

Pull a part is where I get mine

 

[wizard_of_ahs]

I always buy mine out at the Rural King on Wabash. It's close to the house, and the prices are great.

DITTO

 

[UNCLE HARLEY]

DITTO

Same here.

 

[Mr. Habib]

What kind of battery are you looking for? I run an Optima in my Jeep. I just replaced it a few months ago and every store that I called was within $10.00 of one another.

 

[Clay]

I don't need anything fancy like an Optima. This is just my DD. Looking for a decent cheap battery, nothing special.

 

[mrjarrell]

I bought my last battery at Sam's. Saved a nice chunk of change and got a good battery to boot.

 

[K_W]

All batteries are not equal.

A $75 battery with 500CCA and 1 yr/ 6yr warranty
...is not the same as...
A $95 battery with 700CCA and 3 yr / 8yr warranty

If you have a decent sized engine, the 500CCA battery will fail much sooner than the +$20 battery.

There are many factors you have to consider when buying a battery.

Vehicle ownership/life expectancy
Price
Warrenty (both free replacement and pro-rated term)
Demand (4, 5, 6, 8, 10 cyl? Gas/diesel? extra electronics? big stereo?)
Operating Environment (cold climate? hot climate? On road? Off road?)
Frequency of operation (Garage queen show car? daily driver? Grandmas Sunday driver? Work vehicle?)

Take a decent mid range $95 name brand 24f battery. In a well maintained 4 cylinder Camry in Central Indiana that is kept in a garage, driven 15-30 minutes to work, parked in a parking garage, driven home, with a stop at the store, and then parked back in the garage may not wear out the battery the entire time you own it.

In the same Camry, kept outside at XXth and wherever, driven 30 minutes in stop and go traffic, parked outside at work, driven on bumpy city roads, and left outside again, that same battery may last 3 years.

On the other hand put that same battery in a 4 cylinder Tacoma off road truck that sits all week then goes out on mudding trails in 90* heat, bouncing off ruts, and spashing hood deep in mud may only last a season. This truck needs an AGM battery.

 

[Brandon]

I bought my last battery at Autozone. They gave me 10% off for driving 3 miles down the road to their other location to buy. On a 179 dollar battery, that 10% paid for the gas then some!

 

[perry]

I think it was Advance that sold me my last one. Took it to the store to have the battery tested. It was time to replace it. So I sat in the parking lot and ordered online using a coupon then walked back inside to pick it up. They even installed it for me in the parking lot.

 

[loony1]

All batteries are not equal.

A $75 battery with 500CCA and 1 yr/ 6yr warranty
...is not the same as...
A $95 battery with 700CCA and 3 yr / 8yr warranty

If you have a decent sized engine, the 500CCA battery will fail much sooner than the +$20 battery.

Agreed. The sams battery is a energizer w/ 660 cca and 8the yr warranty.

 

[Clay]

battery size and warranty I pay attention to.

battery manufactuer usually doesn't matter, as most of them are made in one of just a few factories.

 

[danielocean03]

battery size and warranty I pay attention to.

battery manufactuer usually doesn't matter, as most of them are made in one of just a few factories.

This. Johnson controls makes the lion's share of them.

 

[Clay]

hey I guess I should update.

I priced batteries at autozone and oriellys, and they were around $100.

Then I went to Rural King.

The only thing I didnt like about RK is they couldn't spec a battery for my XJ, so I had to do it myself. they let be borrow a tape measure.

I had a group 34 battery, and they had a group 75 and a group 34 that matched pretty well. The great thing is the batteries were normally $60, but they had a sale and the one I got was $10 off. I bought the group 75 battery because it had 50 more CCA than the 34. So it was 800 CCA @ 32F, and 650 @ 0F, Excide marked. Warranty is 60 months, probably prorated, but for that price Im not worried about it.

 

[92LX]

DEKA!!!

After having 3 Wal-Mart batteries fail in prematurely in 3 different vehicles I finally put a pair of Deka batteries in the Wife's Truck. Got them down town from Taylor and Blackburn Battery Wharehouse. Truck starts better than ever.

These batteries came highly recommended to me from several truck boards, my boss at work (used to run an auto repair shop) and they seem to work great after about 18 months so far. Not really that much more than the Wal-mart batteries.