Alright- thought I share. My X5 is now 5 years old, love the power, hate the poor gas milage and hate the 20" RFT tire going loud after 10K. The point is I still take good care of it, but don't want to put any more money in it if I don't have to - most likely trade it for something else in the next 18 mo. So after I returned the non-AGM battery back to Batteries Plus, their AGM battery which was not in stock, was $189, but the CCA was only in the 800 Range. So I decided to drive down to Firestone to buy an Interstate AGM battery as everyone had suggusted. The manager mentioned they only stock the standard Wet Cell/Non AGM in all Firestone shops as normal stock ($199). He can order me the AGM one tomorrow (Monday).
I agreed and since I had more time in the afternoon, I looked up the price, it's around $290 listed on Interstate. I was fine with that, just a little annoyed that I was ready to install a new one today since I had remove the old one earlier in the day. So I started browing since I had time and found the below battery from Advanced Auto Parts which had all the matching criteria as the OE one. It was only $162 with 3 year full warranty (yes not 6 years) and prorate after 3 til 7 years. I thought I'd give it a shot and search on various other forums. The only complaint I saw was "plastic casing damaged during shipping." (well of course, these things are heavy!) Long story short, even got a tip to use an online $40 off coupon. (PC4U123)
Final total out of pocket: Final price was 132.70 with tax (122+10.70). I don't think you can find a better price. I thought I'd share (rh71 - hopefully this helps with your dying battery)
I don't see the the value of the $290 battery... Now that I spent even less than I expected on this battery, I don't know if I should bother to go to a indie shop to get this battery registered...
(BTW, the garage door spring snapped after all said and done and looks like the money I saved will be going to the Garage Door man tomorrow)
Good luck everyone.
AutoCraft Gold AGM Battery, Group Size H8, 900 CCA
Quote:
Originally Posted by rh71
Today after I shut off the engine and left the radio on while waiting for my wife to pick something up in the store, the idrive shut itself off after only 2-3 minutes. Usually it's closer to 15-20 mins. The car is 5 years old now and I knew the battery is on its last legs. I hit start/stop to turn the radio on again and immediately it shut idrive off. Then a minute later the dash showed a battery icon. This is actually good, I know for certain what the issue is. I was afraid I would have random errors and I'd have to guess when my battery is going, but this is good, though I've never seen someone here ever say the battery icon shows up on the dash like that.
Anyway, I started the car up just fine, and had to get gas (shut off and back on again just fine). So it appears this is a nice early-warning for me.
I gotta risk driving to Brooklyn tonight with it, but at least the highway miles will give it a nice charge for a change.
^ Yes. I just read up on another forum with the same question about registering and it has to do with rate of charge, and people were contemplating not doing it because their new battery is cheap enough anyway). But I'd suggest you find an independent shop BMW Repair Shops - Find a BMW Mechanic | BimmerShops.com to do it for you for < $60 and avoid the headache. |