Car batteries..... How much?!?!!

[Goochie]

Our corsa shed needs a new battery as it's now unable to hold it's charge. So this evening I went to Halfords to buy a new battery - But came away empty handed! £68 !!!!!! For a 1997 P reg 1.4 corsa battery!! 68 flippin pounds!!!

So I've looked online and found a lot of cheaper batteries, but they're brands I've never heard of.

The question is, what do I need to look for when buying a battery online?

[Ricky_M]

Thats Halfords for you. Go to a Motor Factors, cheaper and better advice.

[Cost Captain]

kwik fit do the same one fitted for that money with a 3 year guarantee.

[lost in espace]

You could try costco and ebay.

[Ian_sUK]

If you must go to halfords borrow a trade card, gets about 40% off on batteries, if not euro car parts car usually quite cheap.

[Engineer1]

Motor factors and consider how much longer you plan to keep the car a 5 year warranty on a battery is great but id the car has 3 months life it is overkill.

[bazking69]

It's on 063. We buy them for £17 plus VAT and they come with a 3 year warranty.

Halfords thrive on lazy people and those too stupid to see they are being ripped off.

[bazking69]

The scary thing is they'll have thosuands of happy customers over the winter period too...

[jbi]

IIRC correctly don't you get a slight refund if you give them your old battery?

[Ian Geary]

sister in law - 1994 Astra

new battery

Halfords - £79
Motor factor £60
Euro car parts - £35

- same Amp hours, famous brand too


my car - H7 bulb

Halfords - £16
Euro car parts - £1.99

if you've got one near you, they don't just do "euro" cars

hth

Ian

Edited by Ian Geary on Thursday 23 September 20:15

[Welshbeef]

Just bought a battery for the Volvo from costco Bosch silver they have a 4year warranty ours was £58 halfrauds for their own brand was more ... Total joke.

Bosch silver is the one you want. If you scrap the car switch your old dead battery back and take the new Bosch with you. Put into the new car you get.

[Hedders]

Ian Geary said:

Euro car parts

-

if you've got one near you, they don't just do "euro" cars

Does the one you go to have a really weird retail set up?

In my one there are no prices on anything. You take the product to the counter and the sales guy takes the product in to the back office and checks the prices if he doesn't know them, then comes and tells you. If you want to purchase the item he takes your cash back into the back office and waits for somone to become available so they can process the transaction and print an invoice. So then he waits around by the printer for the system to get round to printing the invoice and then comes back out to the sales floor. It took five minutes for a simple purchase of some gearbox oil or something and i was the only customer in the shop!

It was like they don't actually want people going in and buying stuff..

[Faust66]

I've had a lot of problems with my local Eurocarparts store.

Ordered some brake pads, bulbs and track control arms on seperate occasions and EVERY single time the wrong part was delivered (this was the 24 hour order to store).

I'll still use them as they're cheap, but I always make a point of checking the part before I pay.

[spaximus]

Batteries have gone up in price due to various reasons. Yes Halfords and the like will charge top whack everytime.
Cheap batteries are cheap for a reason! Anyone who works in the motor trade will know how many cheap battery manufacturers have gone bust one earlier this year.The good ones stay in business. Some of the "branded" ones are just that a cheap battery with a lable stuck on to raise the brand profile.

[Welshbeef]

spaximus said:

Batteries have gone up in price due to various reasons. Yes Halfords and the like will charge top whack everytime.
Cheap batteries are cheap for a reason! Anyone who works in the motor trade will know how many cheap battery manufacturers have gone bust one earlier this year.The good ones stay in business. Some of the "branded" ones are just that a cheap battery with a lable stuck on to raise the brand profile.

note the Volvo battery I just replaced was original 16 years old... Incredible shame they don't make em like that anymore

[jbi]

they do... expect to pay £200 for one

My old volvo 850 is still running on it's original battery from 1995 according to it's current owner

[Ozzie Osmond]

spaximus said:

Cheap batteries are cheap for a reason!

That is very true. They may all look the same and work nicely when you first buy them but in the long run it's the quality of what's inside that counts.

Buy from a battery specialist if you can. Don't expect it to be "cheap".

[jbi]

ideally get the highest "cold cranking" battery you can afford... it's states on the side of every battery, higher numbers = better

[Dogwatch]

Had some good service from here

They promise next day delivery. Car was in the drive with totally knackered battery from 'well known edge of town car parts retailer'which had been iffy for a while despite not being very old. No handy relatives around for transport anyway so I needed one delivered toot sweet. Placed order not expecting any miracles, but it was sitting on the doorstep the next morning, fully charged and correct terminals for the car (shopping Focus ).
Back on the road as fast as i could lift the bonnet and wield a spanner. This was last summer and no problems since despite being outdoors all last winter.

[Cost Captain]

Faust66 said:

I've had a lot of problems with my local Eurocarparts store.

Ordered some brake pads, bulbs and track control arms on seperate occasions and EVERY single time the wrong part was delivered (this was the 24 hour order to store).

I'll still use them as they're cheap, but I always make a point of checking the part before I pay.

Same here, they got the radiator on my A3 wrong twice. I only ever try CSF or Audi main dealer.