The other day when the Purple Whale had his 45k check-up, the Service Adviser advised me the the battery was getting weak, it had only 300 cold cranking amps instead of the 670 it was rated for and they would be happy to replace it while the car was already there. I politely declined, figuring that the cost of a dealer installed OEM battery would be a darn sight higher than one purchased from a local auto parts palace.
Maybe I’m wrong and the battery wouldn’t have been expensive and things have changed some because they would like the business, but considering what they charged for a glorified oil change and inspection, I doubt it. I’m sure what they lack in volume of batteries sold, they more than make up for it in price.
This afternoon on the way home from lunch we stopped in at an Advanced Auto Parts about a mile from the house and had them test the battery. My cynical side thought that not only would the dealer over-charge me for a battery, he might possibly even over-charge me for a battery I didn’t actually need. The nice woman who tested the Purple Whale’s electrical heart gave me a readout with the very same 300 CCA figure as did the Hyundai dealer.
The car has never hesitated to start, but remembering having to call a friend to rescue us a while back when the Emperor failed to start because of a weak battery with no indications it was going bad either, we figured a $120 was good insurance. Twenty minutes later we had a new 670 cold cranking amp battery installed, the old one disposed of and the hardest thing I had to do was punch in my PIN number after swiping the debit card.