Not sure what Ford Dealers are in on this program if it's just Autonation Ford dealers or what but the Autonation Ford in Panama City Florida has a program for free replacement of your batteries for life. It only costs an extra $179. I think that's a hell of a deal. Yes they do the batteries for our truck also. Here's a pic I took of the add at the service counter

 

Seems like a good deal but it must be $179 for each battery? Plus it also says starting at $179......that could be for a very small battery, did you inquire about our battery group size?.

 

I think Bigb56 is right on the money there. Essentially you are paying in advance for your next battery through AutoNation. I could be wrong though, but I don't see them putting a warranty on a battery to be replaced, and all of the next batteries for the next 30 years or so for $179.

 

No I didn't but I have to go back there so I'll ask him.

 

No I meant each battery because our trucks use two. I can't see them refusing the lifetime replacement on each successive battery as long as you follow all their rules and requirements. I think they will still make money on the deal because they know most people don't keep their cars that long.
Even buying a battery with a long warranty period like 100 months you are still paying up front for that warranty, they are making enough to give you another one down the road. Most will outlast the 3 year free replacement though and they will get their pro rata amount from you.
I think the Autonation lifetime just gets them more up front money and they will make more than they will have to pay out on it, no doubt they have done the research.
There will always be a few who keep their vehicles for a decade or more and those are the few who will benefit, while Autonation will keep the extra front money from the masses who don't.
Pretty clever of them I think.

 

I misunderstood your thoughts then, my apologies. The way I read the warranty at first was when you buy the battery and the lifetime warranty you will not have to buy another battery ever again to replace that particular battery. Now what I assume the warranty is for is replacement of that battery one time for life. I believe by paying the $179 and purchase price of the battery you are simply paying in advance for the next battery however long it may be in the future.

 

I am the most skeptical person I know and a firm believe in, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is (too good to be true)". Sous might be onto something there with the one time thing and not perpetual. No matter how you cut it it's a form of insurance and insurance is not really there for us, it's for the insurance company to make money.

Edit: Don't over look that word "limited" that they have there.

 

I use the Costco Warranty for mine Interstate batteries free replacement for the first three years then prorated. If they start to get sluggish I take them back and get new batteries I even got money back last time. The tire guy said if you think they are going out then bring them in they don't test them. Not trying to rip them off but if they are failing!!

 

The key words, 'Limited Lifetime', and 'Starting at.....'. What exactly do those mean? Last time I checked at Costco, two 850CCA, 42 month warranty Interstate batteries were $180 for our rigs. This coming March will be 8 years for my Kirkland batteries. They just recently started to show signs of slowing down.

 

Limited Lifetime...

 

I can't think of a single instance in my lifetime where the company who offered the lifetime warranty that I fell for... is actually in business today to honor that warranty for a lifetime.

And then I finally understood... the lifetime warranty is for the lifetime of the company, or the lifetime of the current whims of the particular corporate leadership in place when the warranty was offered. It no longer applies when the company gets bought out, bankrupted, reconstituted, renamed, divested, or simply stops selling whatever it is they formerly offered a liftetime warranty for.

I have outlived a lot of companies now. Companies that seemed set in stone, solid as a rock, with roots as deep as the earth's iron core... gone.

I'll never forget a very poignant conversation I had with an 80+year old security guard in the back lot of the GM FTA plant in Michigan. This was right after GM went "bankrupt", and re emerged as the so called "New GM" financed with taxpayer money. Same badge, same brand, same logo, same location, same cars, and some of the same folks running the outfit... but no, it's a "different" company now.

Which means all the pension, health, and retirement benefits this guard had worked all his adult life for when he was an auto worker in the plant... gone.

Which explains why he was sitting in the shack, instead of sitting at home playing with his grandchildren. Instead, he was working to support himself and his grandchildren, because he had nothing left after the bankruptcy, as he tells it. Lifetime warranty. Whose lifetime?

I buy products based on the product's proven merits and reputation for longevity. Lifetime warranties strike me as a marketing ruse that has no bearing on the longevity of the product, or the longevity of the company offering the warranty.

 

And that would bring us the other line I noticed on there...'subject to change'...

 

Companies that seemed set in stone, solid as a rock, with roots as deep as the earth's iron core... gone.
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Even Budweiser is owned by a Dutch company now.

 

A warranty is a sales pitch in today's business world.

 

Unless there was some brand new technology involved, I am back to believing that as much as I am money conscious, I am equally concerned about battery failure always seemingly coming at an inconvenient time. So I suspect, even with a "lifetime" warranty, the battery will fail, much along the same timelines as other batteries of its type and I would suspect that to be 3 or 4 years. And you don't have to take my word for it. Interstate batteries making batteries for more than 60 years, just changed their warranty to 3.5 years replacement and nothing after that! I am sure they make a good battery and that they put a lot of research into their warranty time.