I just put in a new MC Maxx battery this morning. I had a chance to do some neat research on pricing and warranty applications as I wanted a MC battery but the dealer closest to me has no parts department hours on Saturday so, I had to drive to the next town to their Ford dealer. All prices are with the core turn in.

The AZ Duralast Gold 850 CCA's is $133 and they'll install. 96 month warranty prorated with a free replacement.
The Everstatrt at Wally world is $93.99 with a 40 month warranty and I believe 750 CCa's.
The Eveready at BJ's is a 650 and sells for $99 and carries a 40 month warranty.

O'Reilly's sells Motorcraft batteries but the crap of that deal is, you go there and pay $156 for the battery and then they get it for you from a Ford dealer.

At this point I realized that it's all a game and those who don't do some basic research get screwed big without being greased. I got the battery from Ford as mentioned and it was $119 and $126 OTD. 850 CCA's with a 36 month free replacement and the remainder of the 100 month warranty is prorated.

The parts counter guru emphasized that I keep the purchase receipt as it IS NOT logged into the system for warranty purposes. The receipt will get me a warranty claim ANYWHERE in the country where MC batteries are sold. I forgot to mention, I read on the Ford parts website where if you have a dealer installed MC battery and it fails within the warranty period, Ford will pick up the towing bill.

The best warranty and the lowest cost for the quality, who'd a thunk it from Ford.

So, I hope this helps someone in the future.

 

It sounds like the battery will probably not make it thru the winter. Why take the chance of being stranded on Christmas Eve? As far as having the battery supply store charge it for you, I was in Autozone last year. A Customer was raising Holy h*ll with the manager. It seemed that he had left his battery for a free charge and had been called to come pick it up. When he got there, they had given it away to some other customer by mistake! he received a new battery on the house. Jag

 

I like Motorcraft batteries. On my old 2004 F150, I got 7 years and 2 months out of the factory battery until I noticed it started dragging one day when I started it. The factory battery in the 2012 I recently traded in was still going strong when I got rid of it.

 

Agree that it's worth looking into the warranty on vehicle batteries.

 

Guess they don't make them like they used to... my 87 F150 I replaced the factory battery in 1998.

 

Damn, and I was excited as hell to get 7 years out of mine. I've never heard of one lasting that long.

 

Red box / red label Motorcraft parts are distributed independently of Ford dealers. As a related example, I once wanted a couple of Motorcraft Super Duty batteries (BSD-65, 900 CCA, 1000 CA). No Ford dealer stocked them, as they all had Tested Tough, and Tested Tough Max. But the Max was only 850 CCA, and I wanted the 900 CCA/ 1000 CA. I ended up going to the local Motorcraft distributer, who also distributes other brands like Fram, Bendix, etc, in order to will call the batteries.

That distributor doesn't sell to the public, they sell to all the area auto parts stores that sell Motorcraft products. Those stores do not buy Motorcraft parts from the dealer... they actually buy from the auto parts distributors who carry the Motorcraft line. And get this: even the local Ford dealers often buy their Motorcaft parts through this distributer. AC Delco is similar... in that AC Delco parts are simultaneously distributed outside of the General Motors dealership network.

Back to Ford... in the beginning of this post I mentioned "red box / red label". And the meaning of this is "as opposed to BLUE label". If you get a part from the dealership, and it is in a red box or bag with a Motorcraft label and part number, then it is likely that this exact same part is available to the independent distributor, without that part ever having to pass through a Ford dealer. On the other hand, if the box or bag label is BLUE, then that is a Ford Service part, and those indeed are generally available only through Ford dealers.

 

That's awesome information sir, thank you.