start

Is the new battery fully charged? This has all the symptoms of a discharged battery. This could still be the case even if it is new. Also make sure all the terminals are clean and tight. A poor connection will cause slow cranking.

the batt he was sold at halford is very small for his car, the one that came out is very big,i went round there today and yes it is just about turning the engine over. then i looked at the old batt and it is a big one but the one halfords sold him is very small. told him to return it back to them and ask one with more amps.

You should be able to look up the correct battery for the car in Halfords reference guides.

so am right its the amps not the volts?

Certainly heavy duty batteries have a higher amp/hour figure. Incidentally, last year we got a new heavy duty battery from Halfords for my wife's 306TD which was on special offer at about £60. Since then I have been looking around for one for my 406HDI as the current one is 8 years old and must be on borrowed time. I found that I can get the correct battery (Bosch) from Costco for £34. Not a bad price.

so where is the nearest Costco?

Reading, near the Madeski Stadium (by the wind generator at junction 11 of the M4) and another at Watford. Only snag is that it's a membership thing like Matalan. Unfortunately, unlike Matalan, they charge £25 per annum. It is a wholesale place that allows non-trade people in after about 11am. If you only want them for batteries then it is not worth joining, but you can save a fortune on virtually everything - for example, first class postage stamps work out at about the price for second class, and they carry everything from food to TV's to toys to car consumables (tyres, batteries etc) etc. Oh, and they have an excellent range of wines.