my car after 5 years is still running fine on the original panasonic battery. recent tests report that it’s nearing the end of its life however. i’m not much of a car person so i don’t know what’s a good brand and what’s not. of course, i’d love to have another panasonic battery since it’s been great…but it appears you cannot get one aftermarket.

my dad mentioned optima and interstate and to avoid dealership batteries. it looks like dealerships simply rebrand a battery and mark up the price quite a bit.

i saw consistent reference to the following batteries:
1. optima (yellow top/red top), considerable hype about these batteries especially the yellow top.
2. sears diehard weatherhandler
3. interstate

what’s bad is these batteries aren’t that cheap..however, i’m inclined to spend more money up front if it means me not worrying about it for another 5 years. in the mean time i’ll run my current battery til its death.