what is a good car battery?
 

suggestions? avoidances? price?

Duralast 49-DL from Autozone. Around $90.

stay away from the optima's, been reading bad things about them lately.

diehard

autozone and pepboys say they do not have a battery for our cars but any of those batteries will fit

Just get one with a lot of power for a good price and you are set to go

Do they make a Red-Top OPTIMA?

bosch at pepboys, $100 for driect replacement, bosch makes many stock parts for bmw.

I replaced mine with the OEM brand - VARTA battery

optima's bad.

I have had really good experiences with Interstate batteries. Not sure on price for the X5.