New car battery - best deals please?

£45ish isn't bad surely is it? I assume being a performance machine it requires a fairly heavy duty battery?

I have no idea whether £45 is good or bad, since I haven't bought a car battery in about 10 years and it's the only price I've found. It doesn't sound too bad but if I can spend less then so much the better.

Being a performance car has nothing to do with battery power/strength. It's the engine that provides the power; the battery just starts it :-) As the car is a 4 pot turbo (running at lower compression than your average family saloon, I imagine) I'm guessing the load on the battery is actually quite light relative to most vehicles. Now if it were a V8 or a diesel lump then I'd agree it should be heavy duty.

Additives generally don't work as it's more or less impossible to persuade the lead sulphate off the plates. CostCo are good for batteries if you know anyone who has membership and there are a few around down there.

This is true :-) I also havn't bought a car battery for, erm, well, ever, so i'll shut up now :)

Thanks for that. I did think of Costco - my girlfriend used to be a member but that expired long ago and we haven't felt it worthwhile renewing. I might check out their prices today, as I'll be in the neighbourhood, and see if it's worth signing up again. There's also a Halfords nearby them so I'll call in there too.

Cheers :-)

What is it with Southerners? Are you all really that skint? Always seems to be Southerners wanting the skinflint way out.

It's 5 1/2 years old. It's done well. Time to get another. Try your local motorfactor who are more inclined to do everything they can to find a battery unlike the sales droids at Halfords who couldn't care.

Unfortunately, being skint tends to go hand in hand with being unemployed :-( No sense just wasting money, so if I can get the same thing cheaper I will. Now off to Lakeside via local auto spares shop........ if the car starts ;-)

Cheers, Tim.

£25+vat to join, after a battery and two tyres you've probably broke even....

Halfords is self service. You look up their lists yourself in store to find out if they make a suitable replacement.

But a motor factor may have access to a wider range of makes for a replacement.

What I done for my wife's motor was, I got the code from here

then searched one of the motor factorson line As someone has mentioned, Costco are usually cheap. You will get in with your girlfriends old car. I doubt you will get in if you don't have a card (even just for a look). If her card has run out in the last few months they will accept it. Just plead ignorance when you come to the checkout. They will just remind you it has run out. They have done this with me several times ;o)

I live near southend in essex and I always buy my batteries from ABS Batteries in Rayleigh, Essex. They are a Battery manufacturer/wholesaler. They are on brook Road Ind Est Which is right on the A127. I got a Super heavy duty battery from them for my mk2 golfGTi 16v for £37.88 inc Vat. Give them a try on 01268 776376/745857. Its always best to pick it up from them. Their postcode is SS6 7UY if you need to look at

to find them.

Hope thats of any help to anyone.

Best regards

Chris

Thanks for all your replies. The local motor spares place wanted £42.50 including VAT, with a three year warranty and another local spares place was charging just under £40 all in.

But I then took a look inside the cells (I couldn't see the water line from outside the battery) and discovered that most had the plates sticking out of the water so instead of a new battery I went for a tube of batt-aid tablets and a litre of distilled water. The battery took the whole litre! So far it's all still working, with a total of six starts since I charged it this morning and no sign of any problems. Fingers crossed :-)

My dad noticed this years ago with a failed so-called "sealed for life" battery. He prised open the cover, topped it up, and it went on to give a few more years service.

But they won;t help you if its not in the list.

And are likely ot help find one that'll do the job.

Would you expect someone in a supermarket to help with things they didn't stock?

Not the sme. If there's an equivalent that'll do the job I'd expect them to be so knowledgeable as to suggest it.

Get off ya arse n get a job then.

Oooh that's a good idea. I wish I'd thought of that. Perhaps I'll ask my car to only give me trouble when I've got a job.

You expect too much. They're shelf fillers.