I havent either, but I still wont use duralast as I only use autozone for basic supplies such as paints, oils, filters. As far as batteries and replacement parts goes I go else where. Its not so much that the duralast brand of parts are horrible as much as I was treated like crap by one of the employees when trying to buy parts and the manager never came out to find out what was going on when his employee was cursing me out. Even autozone corporate didnt do nothing to resolve the issue, they did fire the guy as I never saw his car there again nor did I see him there. But they couldnt be bothered to offer something to try and make up for the incident. Same thing with Oreilly, I had a employee walk away from me cause I had a list of 5 different switches from their website with part numbers I wanted to check as there were no photos. He couldnt be bothered to do that job instead he looked at the list and said they dont have them in stock they are online only and that when have I ever went to a store and they had in the store what was online. He didnt like when I told him I do it all the time with other autopart stores to get the right part I am looking for. He just turned and walked away and went to help another customer. That was 15 years ago and I heard since then he passed away but I still dont set foot in that store.

Im just glad that Advance got the license for selling Diehard batteries as that is all I use and I have no issue with Advance even though most of my purchases now are online since the local part houses keep telling me they have to order what I need. Seems our trucks have reached that point where they wont stock the items in the back anymore.

 

If you order from Advance online, that can be a good thing. I can sometimes beat rockauto prices by doing that. You can always find a 20% off coupon on the internet for Advance and sometimes you can find a 30% coupon. Couple that with the free shipping you get most of the time, and when you figure out the shipping at rockauto, it's the same at Advance online or sometimes cheaper.

 

That's an awesome tip Dave, I did not know that about the parts stores doing that but it makes a lot of sense.

 

Advance is the only one I know of that has deals like that. And I have found if you use it a lot, then their site starts mysteriously crashing. They say "their site is down for maintenance" but if I get on with my phone, everything works fine. Seems like if I get too many deals, they flag my IP that I get on the internet with.

 

I've been through I don't know how many batteries in my life, I remember Die Hards performing well as a kid/teenager/20s.

Did the Interstate thing but wasn't impressed, although I think my experience was with their lower-end units.

Been phuquing around with 2 of the Ford Taurii recently, those are all Autozone Duralast and Ford Motorcraft. There are starter motor issues involved here so these are disqualified.

Quite honestly, the best battery I've experienced in recent years is an Autozone Duralast in my truck; it is 9 years old at this point and still doing fine:






That is all.

 

That is a Johson Controls manufactured battery. It seems on average Johson Controls/Clarios manufactured batteries tend to give the best service.

 

I live in Houston and park the truck and a 2013 Chevy Sonic on the street year round. Both start easily and have good charging systems. About 4 months out of the year, the Sonic gets upwards of 20 starts in a 10 hour work day. Good batteries last 3 or 4 years. El Cheapos from the Zone last 20 to 22 months. When the Zone had a 24 month free replacement, I'd net 3 to 4 years. Now they have cut it to 18 months, so things have changed.

I've learned to read the fine print on the guarantee, hope it fails prior to the free replacement period, and expect to buy one after three summers.
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I'd like to hear more of how people use and store their vehicles along with their experiences.

 

Ive done that before, its why I have the Honey app on my desktop computer, if there is a coupon code out there Honey has it and will automatically apply it. I dont know how many times Ive gotten general parts online shipped to my front door from Advance for less money than RockAuto even.

But some times I still have to go to RockAuto as they have some motorcraft/ac delco parts at close out that you cant get else where. Its like the DSII module I picked up it was a new motorcraft unit which no auto parts had.

 

Diehard and Duralast are the same batteries just with a different label.

 

That may be, but I dont buy batteries from autozone, I only buy oil, additives, and paint from autozone. Anything more I go else where.

 

I don't buy oil from any auto parts store, Walmart, Tractor Supply and Rural king are all cheaper.

 

I dont do business at walmart, tractor supply is where I get hydraulic fluid for the tractors but not the oil as they dont carry the oil I use. Never heard of Rural king before.

Oil I get is from amazon, I actually got two cases of 10w30 VR1 for the cost of one case earlier this year.

 

You don't do business with Walmart but you buy from Amazon?

 

Yep. I dont do business with walmart because its walmart, its cause the walmarts around me are pure trash and I hate stepping in the store dealing with the types of people that go there. When I am out at the ground cutting the grass I have no problem going to the walmart the next town over as its clean, the people are nicer and its not a madhouse. They opened a new walmart that I used to go to here in houston out in the heights but I quit going cause that was a nice walmart with nice people shopping there for the first four years then it turned into a trashy store like the others.

 

So yesterday a friends 2007 Buick would not start, typical battery sounding issue, just a clicking sound when trying to start. He says it's the OEM battery that came in the car. AC Delco 79-6YR battery. He found the dealer will replace it for $218. with labor.