According to Autozone.com our cars require 690 CCA. Mine is only a 650, which might explain some problems.

The question I have, is there any advantage to going with the highest I can afford? I'm looking at one with 800 CCA. Is it worth the extra money, or should I just go with the 700 CCA?

First off, I've had my car start with 2xx some cca'* before. Yea, it ran like crap and anlmost died while starting, but it started.

Since you live in MN (where the cold winter days get COLD)the more CCA the better. I believe mine has around 800 CCA'* and Inever have a problem turning it over on the coldest days.

Now my truck has some cheap a$$ battery with minimal CCA'* in it. On a day below freezing I have about 4 seconds to get it to fire before you can hear the starter slowing down from lack of juice.

_________________bottom line, the more CCA'* you got, the less jumps you'll be getting.

I knew it would help with starting, but what about general performance? My SWAG (seriously wild-assed guess) is that less strain on the alternator = better general performance.