Yikes - new battery price

MarkJ

Forum Member
I posted a while ago about whether my Citroen Relay starter battery was shot. I've had more trouble starting, and having checked and tightened all connections, I am wondering about it again. So I thought I'd find out how much a new one costs.

The answer is around £480- £500.

It seems the stop-start is the killer. That price is a Bosch with a 4-year warranty and is the Citroen recommended part. Finding a compatible is a nightmare, but I reckon the cheapest with any sort of warranty from a name you might have heard of is still £250-£275.

A question: one garage I asked for a quote from said the new battery would need to be 'coded' so that the ECU recognised it as new. A workshop manager I spoke to said that was nonsense. Anyone know?
 

Sprinter 1 cup

Forum Member
You can only push them so far. My dad in the 70s use to park his van on vicars hill , SE13 and leave it there over night . at 4am leave house with a spray can of easy start in hand. Lol. He was a big man and walked up that hill 1/4 mile from Marsala rd. £ 500 would be new van to him / kill him.
 
Millie Master

Millie Master

Forum Member
I thought "Christ, can't be" so I took a quick look at Euro Car Parts and a Bosche starter battery for my Renault Master along with a 4 year warranty was there for a quite reasonable £156.99 off which you can normall take some kind of buying discount which today can be as much as 35%.

So heaven knows what type of battery you were trying to buy @MarkJ
 
Pudsey Bear

Pudsey Bear

Forum Member
Our Fiesta battery was acting up two years ago, that has stop start so I turned it off while I got a new one under the warranty, barsturds fought tooth and nail to get out of it but I won.
 

MarkJ

Forum Member
Millie Master said:
So heaven knows what type of battery you were trying to buy @MarkJ
Click to expand...
Made me weak at the knees. This is the official Citroen part:

www.arnoldclarkautoparts.com

Genuine Peugeot/Citroen 12V Battery - 1638153480

Genuine Peugeot/Citroen 12V Battery - 1638153480 from the car parts & accessories specialists. Get free delivery on all orders over ú55 and spread the cost of purchases interest free.
www.arnoldclarkautoparts.com www.arnoldclarkautoparts.com

I phoned my local dealer, an independent but well-reputed garage, and the bloke round the corner, and they all gave me more or less the same price.

Two of them said you can get one for £250, but it won't have a decent warranty and it won't have the same CCA or Ah.

A battery for my Audi (with start-stop) is over £200 and for my Volvo (PHEV) it's £300.

I think we've all been duped. The regulations say they have to cut the gases (which is fair enough, I'm all for that) but they do it by introducing things like stop-start, which result in us having to buy huge batteries that probably generate as much extra CO2 to manufacture as we save with stop start. And the same with space-saver tyres. The weight saved goes to their CO2 figures, but we end up buying mousse which means the tyre is written off after a trivial puncture, so we buy more tyres, generating more CO2.

P*sses me off, really.
 
Squiffy

Squiffy

Forum Member
MarkJ said:
Made me weak at the knees. This is the official Citroen part:

www.arnoldclarkautoparts.com

Genuine Peugeot/Citroen 12V Battery - 1638153480

Genuine Peugeot/Citroen 12V Battery - 1638153480 from the car parts & accessories specialists. Get free delivery on all orders over ú55 and spread the cost of purchases interest free.
www.arnoldclarkautoparts.com www.arnoldclarkautoparts.com

I phoned my local dealer, an independent but well-reputed garage, and the bloke round the corner, and they all gave me more or less the same price.

Two of them said you can get one for £250, but it won't have a decent warranty and it won't have the same CCA or Ah.

A battery for my Audi (with start-stop) is over £200 and for my Volvo (PHEV) it's £300.

I think we've all been duped. The regulations say they have to cut the gases (which is fair enough, I'm all for that) but they do it by introducing things like stop-start, which result in us having to buy huge batteries that probably generate as much extra CO2 to manufacture as we save with stop start. And the same with space-saver tyres. The weight saved goes to their CO2 figures, but we end up buying mousse which means the tyre is written off after a trivial puncture, so we buy more tyres, generating more CO2.

P*sses me off, really.
Click to expand...
I really have to agree with Phil (Millie) Mark, the garages you have gone to are obviously out to make a punters profit from you. If you go to a motor factors even if they don't treat you as trade the price of a decent battery would only hover around £150-170, and if you can get treated as in the trade you would get about 5-10% of those prices, batteries are not a great profit for motor factors due to the wholesale cost of them but retailers General garages that is, really push the puleems on battery prices and quite frankly rip the general public off. Though it is a fact that battery prices have increased generally over the last 3 years. Phil.
 
trevskoda

trevskoda

Forum Member
Turn the stop start cr-p off and buy a normal battery, remember start stop fooks the flywheel ring gear teeth and burns out starters much faster, just more boll--ks to get our monies.
 
Pudsey Bear

Pudsey Bear

Forum Member
Rubbish Trev, maybe on early ones, our car has done 70k and no issues, we did replace the battery under warranty though as it seemed to be causing problems with the AC.
 
Millie Master

Millie Master

Forum Member
I honestly can't understand anyone buying manufacturer supplied OE equipment once a vehicle is out of their restrictive warranty programmes!!

Buy OE spec if you must, but buy it from a factor and save yourself hundreds of £'s.

As an aside, I have just fitted new brakes all round on my BMW 225XE, buying everything for the job from EBC Brakes and that were all of a higher specification than BMW OE parts and yet I saved approaching £500 by doing so!

Phil
 
Squiffy

Squiffy

Forum Member
To be honest in my view of stop/start it can not in engineering terms be good for the mechanical integrity of a vehicle because without doubt it must put a far greater strain on the starter motor, battery and ringgear. To have gone 70k without problems is lucky I feel Pudsey. The other thing is the constant restarting of car engines at traffic lights and traffic jams really grates on my senses, this is obviously my personal take on them. One of my sons has a hybrid Mazda that when I drive it I have to turn the Stop/start off as it's totally un nerving to me that the engine cuts out but I suppose you get use to it.
Another thing, I know it's a bit off the subject of batteries, is speed reductions on motorways to "Stop pollution" what a load of cobblers when you are stuck in a queue because they have slowed a 70mph to 40/50mph and the traffic has backed up to 3 or 4 miles all moving at about 2 to10mph constantly pressing the accelerator and so labouring the engines which causes far greater pollution than doing 70mph cruising through in 5mins than very slow moving traffic taking 20-25mins to travel the same distance. Where stop/start doesn't do a diddly squat because the traffic is still moving all be it at a snails pace. 🤨.Phil
 
Pudsey Bear

Pudsey Bear

Forum Member
Not too bothered as it does save fuel Phil, and in traffic it's nice to be able to have the windows open and not gas myself (Diesel) I assume the ring gear and starter motors were all tested to their limits in R&D well before going into production, and the fancy new alternators take care to only put in what you take out.

as for slower speeds, cars are now so high geared we rarely get out of 3rd locally, 4th occasionally and 5th on empty roads, but a 40 limit imposes 4th 30 imposes 3rd (ditto with the van of course) so where are the pollution numbers with that.
 

MarkJ

Forum Member
Millie Master said:
Euro Car Parts and a Bosche starter battery for my Renault Master
Click to expand...
£309 for the Relay at Euro Car Parts. Three year warranty instead of the 4 or 5 for the OEM part. Pays your money, takes your choice I guess

£250 at Alpha batteries for what looks like the same thing - but with 5 year warranty. £50 less, better warranty - go figure!
 
Pudsey Bear

Pudsey Bear

Forum Member
All these will do for my 07 Ducato £95 up t0 £225

1680967974199.png
 
Millie Master

Millie Master

Forum Member
MarkJ said:
Not sure I really know what a factor is?? Is that different from an independent spares place?
Click to expand...

Basically factors in vehicle supply terms are companies who can supply vehicle parts, then if you enter your vehicles details onto their site searh engines you will be able to discover parts which are Original Equipment ( hence OE or OEM ) and other such equipment which possibly doesn't. They are almost always just the same as you term it "an independant spares place".

But don't for heavens sake go along to your local main dealer and ask for an OE specification battery because you can bet you bottom dollar they will immediately take your order, phone somewhere like Euro Car Parts, order the battery from them and then dump a 25% to 75% additional handling charge, simply for the pleasure of your order.................... I KID YOU NOT!

Phil
 

MarkJ

Forum Member
Informative, thank you @Millie Master

Final Q: one guy I phoned said they would need to code the new battery to the ECU, another said that was nonsense, just whack it in.

Who's right???
 
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