considering ive had my license for 5 years, yep. haha

i always get interstate lead acid batteries, i have had a few last over 10 years. i got a mt2 800/1000 for my monte and it was less than 140. deals with my 1200w and factory alt system fine. so have the ones i had in the past

Battery prices have doubled in the last 5 years... it used to be common to get a basic lead acid battery for $60, sometimes even less on sale. All the lead acid batteries are made by the same 3 corporations, so brand name doesn't make much of a difference. Interstate, Die Hard, Everstart, etc. are just stickers on the outside. I'll buy at certain stores for their warranty & replacement policies. Walmart (Everstart batteries) is among the most liberal, with many of their batteries giving 7-8 year warranties. Although the last two I bought were Interstates too.

somethings are worth the extra IMO. my DD is not stock electrically and i drive it 2-30k per year so reliability is worth it for me. i have bought a couple walmart batteries for my trucks which only get driven when i need to haul something, maybe a couple thousand miles a year, so they always time out of warranty, but that said they lasted longer than the 200dollar optimas too.

I bought my battery from Walmart, which I am glad that I did, because I had a parasitic drain that kept killing a cell in the battery, every time Walmart would replace it without any questions/problems.
Since then I bought a Battery Tender battery maintainer, and it keeps the battery charged fully, so far I have had the battery two years, and it works just as well as it did the day I bought it, and I expect to get a few more years from it.

Here I am pretty sure the warranties from Walmart are only 2 year, maybe 3 year, and it has been like this since around 2010, I don't recall ever seeing a warranty for more than 3 years though.

^^ The Walmart free replacement may be 2-3 years, then they often prorate the replacement up to 6-7 years total though. So you still get some credit after that initial 2-3. Auto Zone and Advance Auto are similar I believe.

My last Interstate battery recently tanked after 4.5 years, it was still going but getting weak and I didn't want to chance a dead battery on my wife'* daily driver. The local Interstate shop gave me a small prorated credit but I paid almost full price for the replacement. My local Interstate shop has better service though, compared to the minimum wage guys at Walmart where there'* usually a 4 hour wait. But I'll go the cheaper route anytime I'm doing the work myself, for a product that'* essentially the same no matter where it'* purchased.

they have a interstate "all battery" by were i work, i just buy it there and put it in my self. it seems to have better prices than the retail garages.