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Does Anyone Make A Lifetime Warranty Car Battery?


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My dad bought one for a tractor at my Grandma's house back in the late 60's. It was from Firestone and had the tractor listed as the vehicle on the warranty paperwork. The Firestone dealer would get mad everytime they replaced it. The last time it was replaced in the late 90's, the guy told him he had to drive the "vehicle" in for them to warranty the battery. It was the middle of winter and was snowing pretty hard. My dad looked at him and told him he couldn't dive it there because the battery was dead. After some pretty heated arguing, Firestone replaced it under warranty.

 

It's too bad you can't get those anymore.

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She bought that back in the days when things were built to last. In our modern consumption economy, things are built as cheap as possible and meant to be replaced often (the more often the better) and paid for each time.

I have a different look at this.

The Mfg used a "Lifetime warranty" as a marketing tool, figuring that most people would get rid of there vehicle long before they would actually lose money on the original sale.

Believe me, 1964 Merc's were not designed to last 540,000 miles. If you got 75000 miles out of them you were the exception. Nobody wanted them after 50,000.

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I saw this video of this old lady with a car with 540,000 miles on it and she bought a battery from JC Penny that had a lifetime warranty and has gone through 16 of them! Does anyone actually make a battery with a lifetime warranty?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SJCWcCrqoQ

 

Yea, JC Penney did it... It got them out of the automotive realm of business tooo. JC Penney's has an active charge account at my NAPA store.... They offered a lifetime warranty on the battery for the car it was originally purchased for. If I have somebody come in and say they purchased the lifetime warranty battery from JC Penney's I have to call the JC Penney's store and talk to the manager, give him the Name and address the battery was purchased under and verify to him that the Battery is in blahhhh car (the guy that I have warranty several batteries for has a 66 chevy 1500). The JC Penney's manager will call me back in 30 or so minutes.... Give me a PO number and verification code to put on the invoice and on the 10th of the next month I get a check for the battery. Since they are still in business and he is still driving his 66 chevy 1500 and the battery is still used in that vehicle it was purchased and registered in they are required by law to replace the battery at NO CHARGE to him.

 

So when ever they (JC Penney's) have a battery that goes bad and it meets all the requirements. They must purchase a new battery to replace the one that died. (As Always warranty is NOT TRANSFERABLE, if the owner dies the warranty does tooooo)

 

Crazy right...... Exide sent out bulletins to us quite frequent about this when we carried Exide. Now, NAPA in my area of the US has East Penn/Deka batteries...

 

Jbo

 

Edit: Yeah, my mom had a 1983 Oldsmobile 98 Regency w/307 roller cam, she put about 350k or so on it (1983-1995). Dad drove it another 10 years after my mother decided she wanted another car. It had around 680k on it when I got my name on the title and dad got a new everyday vehicle..... I still have it (i wish it had a 6 digit odo). If I walk in the shop and put a battery in it and some gas in, I bet she will bust right off..... A total testament to keeping the maintenance up on a vehicle.... Engine/Transmission/Differential have never been pulled out of the car....... Engine smokes just a couple seconds if its been a long time since its been cranked.

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Opitma batteries have a lifetime warranty. They supposedly cannot be drained....but then tell me why ive killed 3 of them so far in my '65 Impala? LOL!

 

My store sells them. 3 years on some and only 1 year on the rest. No lifetime warranties on any of them. For how much $$ they are the should have atleast a 5 year if not a 7. Now I have had my yellow top for 6 years and drained it completely dead twice and it's still going strong. However I probably would never buy one again unless I have the need for it.

 

Mike

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  • 10 months later...
She bought that back in the days when things were built to last. In our modern consumption economy, things are built as cheap as possible and meant to be replaced often (the more often the better) and paid for each time.

 

While there are certaintly different quality batteries, NO battery will last for every. It's all about chemistry and discharge cycles. If you look closely every battery is rated for a number of cycles, typical numbers range from 400 to 1000 cycles. The only way a battery will last a lifetime is if you hook it up to a float charger and never discharge it. Do that and in 100 years it will be as good as new.

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