[urq] New Battery

[Ben Howell]

Yes,  Johnson Controls owns Interstate and Yes, they private label batteries for Autozone. The problem is, you don’t know exactly what batteries that are sitting on Autozone’s shelf are made by Interstate. Someone like Autozone (or Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, etc etc etc) is going out to battery manufactures (and there are very few left in the world) with specs for a battery and they usually purchase from the low bidder. So, when you walk into Autozone and you see the large rack of batteries, you have no idea which one Interstate made because they may (or may not) have been low bidder on the particular battery you need.

To further complicate things, Interstate (Johnson Controls) may have been able to be low bidder by doing things like reducing the warranty period they will support. There are all kinds of other cost cutting measures that they can take to become low bidder.  Personally, I have had fantastic success with Interstate and Die Hard (the “Gold” line). I bought my last interstate for $99 at the local Firestone. At the same time, something at Autozone or Walmart was $60. If we assume a battery life of around 5 years, that means I paid an additional  $0.66/month for the piece of mind that I got a superior battery and baring anything stupid that _I_ did, the car _IS_ going to start. Cheap insurance IMHO.

If you want the best of the best, you should buy an Odyssey. Made in America and the quality is absolutely top notch. Quite simply the best battery you can buy right now. Expect a ~$300 price tag though. I seriously doubt that it’s 3x better than an interstate, but if you want the best.....

Ben

-----Original Message-----
>From: Brandon Rogers <brogers at terrix.com>
>Sent: Apr 21, 2011 9:31 AM
>To: urq at audifans.com
>Subject: [urq] New Battery
>
>Guys-
>What do you recommend for a new battery?  Last time I battery shopped (for
>my '01 S4) I learned that the Interstate Battery  I bought was made by
>Johnson Controls and I could have gotten (I think) the same battery
>different label for less at Autozone.  
> 
>So - any recomendations for the urq?
> 
>TIA-
> 
>Brandon 
>'84 urq 20Vt
> 
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