What is battery size / group code for 300m ???

Group 34

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

I've had excellent results with Interstate and poor results with Exide. Some years ago, Consumer Reports did exhaustive tests on many brands. Interstate was at the top; Exide was at the bottom. Bryan

I have had really good luck with the "Duralast" Gold from AutoZone. They hold up very well in the temperature extremes here in the desert southwest. Summer temps range from 115° in the daytime, 85° at night for days on end. Winter temps get to 30°, and even lower when we head up into the mountains.

Here in Canada, our choices are somewhat limited as we don't have as many car-parts chain stores.

The major retailer being Canadian Tire, and some smaller players like PartSource.

Partsource carries about 3 or 4 lines of Exide (but not the top-end lines Orbital and Nascar) but Canadain tire carries only the Nascar and I think Orbital (and their own house brands).

Since I'm looking for a group 34 (or group 78) battery, the absolute low-end for those (Canadian tire house brand) sell for about $50 (450 CCA) while the high end batteries (750 - 850 CCA) can go for $140.

I was looking for an AGM battery, but really couldn't find one (at retail) that wasn't also a spiral battery - so that sucks.

I didn't look at what was available from a Chrysler dealer - is it worth it?

Anyone know who made the OEM batteries for a '00 300m?

PartsSource IS Canadian Tire... :)

Forgot to mention that I've had good luck with kirkland's batteries from Costco. Sould be able to get a 800 CCA for about 100 bucks or less there.

Interstate is not a manufacturer!!!!

M>> I need to buy a battery to temporarily start and move a car so I might

It amazes me the number of myths that propagate regarding how many and who are the players in the battery market, starting with the one you're responding to...

based upon my battery business experience, I propose the following:

for the discriminating buyer: Buy a BCI Group OE replacement Mopar branded battery that has engineering ratings that Chrysler warranted through their Dealer network!

for the cheap skate buyer: Buy at a swap meet, AutoZone or Advance Auto or Interstate Battery or Exide Battery with marketing ratings or used unbranded warranted 3 feet or 3 seconds by some sidewalk vendor at a swap meet.

I'm not sure what of that that you meant seriously and what you meant sarcastically and/or tongue in cheek, but it's a minor PITA to get to the batteries in the LH cars. That would bias the decision to more of a premium battery whose construction and design actually match the warranty that it comes with.

What you don't want is a battery that you'll get replaced for free under its warranty every 2 years even though it's guaranteed for 4 or 5 or 6 or whatever years whether it's you doing the R&R (hassle factor) or the battery vendor (minimum wage people going into the mechanicals of my car is an absolute no-no).

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Update:

We're almost done with this brutal winter, and I still have the factory original battery in my '00 300M (8.3 years so far).

Car has been garaged almost every night which probably helps increase it's life.

Amazingly, even though Interstate manufacturers NOTHING, they are, I'm 99% sure, the current source for Mopar "dealer" (repalcement, not OEM) batteries. I believe that their distribution, delivery, and core-pickup expertise made the difference.

Rick E.

When I had our car serviced a couple days ago, I asked about battery life. They said 2-3 years, BUT our '96 Stratus went at least 5 years (first in Michigan, then in NY) on its original battery. Our '02 300M (first in NY, now in Michigan) is close to 6 years on its original battery.

Perce

Which, in my experience, makes an OEM battery the LAST thing you'd want. Maybe its changed in recent years, but OEM batteries used to be one of the worst things on a new car. A high-end name brand aftermarket battery would greatly outlast a sourced-from-the-lowest-bidder-who-minimally-met specifications battery from a dealer.

Amen.

Winters are EASY on batteries. Its hot summers that eat the life out of them.

I've never gotten more than 2.5 years out of an OEM battery in any car, and about 5 years is the record even with high-end batteries. That's the difference when you have ~100 degrees F ambient every afternoon every summer, and on the order of 200 degrees under the hood in traffic.

Very true, but a battery can also be farther from optimal condition down here and still start the car -- when it's -20F out, a marginal battery won't be good enough.

When I lived in Seattle, it was battery heaven. It seemed like they lasted forever.

My understanding is that heat is hard on the battery on a long-term basis (longevity), but cold weather will cause acute (short term, but recoverable) problems (on a weak battery).

Apparently they put good batteries in at the factory on the LH cars (2nd gen anyway. People on the 300M Club routinely get 6 to 8 years out of them. It's commented on every once in a while out of the blue.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

... and that means that the replacement battery on our '96 Stratus (vehicle purchased 11/95) is also 5 or 6 years old. The replacement battery came from Costco, IIRC.

Perce