OK, I still have my original battery in my 2005 Dakota. It hasn't given me any problems yet but I'm thinking about putting a new one in come winter time.

This is probably going to open a "hornets nest" but who's got what and why???

I don't get to excited about advertisements as THEY always have the best one.

I don't know if it's worth the extra bucks to get an "Optima".

Lay it on me, what do you folks think???

 

i'm on that same boat, more or less. my truck still has the factory battery, but mine is an 07' and ive been thinking about a optima battery. i have heard mix opinions good and bad about them but you hear that for everything. i exchanged my wife's caravan battery yesterday after it failed for the first time, went o autozone for the warranty and the guy chuckled and when i asked him he said that i bought that battery in 2003, 7 years ago! so i bought a duralast gold with 850 cranking amps, 3 years no questions asked replacement and 7 years prorated warranty for $95.00. i thought it was a good deal.. sorry for the long reply!!

 

I had a factory battery in my truck when I bought it last spring, and it started strong. I just never wanted to take a chance here in Wisconsin with the bitter cold winter morning starts.

I went with the Duralast Gold with about 835 CCA if I remember correctly. The only battery I could find with more CCAs was a sears battery with 900 CCA, and it was double the price. The other selling points on the Duralast was the 3 year free replacement, 8 year warranty, and it was under 90 bucks. One year later and still going strong. It started on 0 degree mornings without hesitation.

If youre going to be doing the cold morning starts, get the most cold cranking amps you can. Cold Cranking Amps is measured at 0 degrees F, and Cranking Amps is measured at 32 degrees F. If you look, you can see you loose a substantial amount of power in that 32 degree range. A battery is something you shouldnt go cheap on.

 

For me I don't trust nothing but Optimas. I was replacing my battery ever year with Duralast Gold The TOP battery autozone ect had. I first bought a Red top and that lasted 8yrs with EXTREME use. They are worth every penny.

I then had 2 yellow tops installed until I bought my 2nd vehicle. The truck donated 1 Optima to it.

http://www.optimabatteries.com/

 

My '05 had the original battery until a month ago when one day it just didn't start, the guages didn't even turn on. I had already done extensive research and knew what I wanted. I had originally decided on Optima but found that the company had sent production to Mexico and return rate was reported to be 60%. I checked with a store that only sells batteries and they said their experience with Optima was that about 40% were returned.
I bought a Sears Platinum even though they cost $189 (same price as Optima). They have a 100 month pro-rated warranty. Since it is slightly smaller than stock. I had to fab a hold-down bracket. That took all of 15 minutes. Too soon to know anything about the battery but it works fine so far.

 

I just buy the ones at Checker/Autzone/Napa, etc. I think I have a Duralast gold in there now with the 3 yr warranty (84 month prorated). Doesn't matter here in Phoenix though, my battery dies about every 2-2.5 years anyways because of the heat. The only reason I ever have to buy a new battery is when I have a new car that doesn't have one with a warranty on it yet!

 

I've never had any failures using Interstate batteries.