I'm kinda curious to expand on the original question....has anyone ever bought a battery they WOULDN'T recommend?
Yup! O'Reilly's house brand, whatever it is. Put their "mid grade" in both my Wife's '04 Denali and my '02 LX470 and they both crapped out in less than a year. Got both replaced. Both replacements crapped out in less than a year.
I think both vehicles have a lot of "luxo electro" crap on them with stuff going on all the time even when sitting. And both routinely sit for days at a time. And with both, cold weather and sitting a couple of days meant "no start" with those batteries while still basically new. Because the replacements were still under warranty and it was the path of least resistance, I paid up the difference for the highest level of their house brand after the first replacements crapped the bed and those have both been fine for a couple of years now. But, I won't buy O'Reilly's house brand (whatever it is...) again and definitely would not recommend them.
For my Jeep, I just spend too much time alone out in the boonies to take a chance. Mostly during winter, too. Ran the Diehard Platinum, replaced the first one after five years just on GP, even though it was still going strong and in fact, put the old one in my Son's ZJ and it never gave him any guff. Replaced the second one also after five years, same thing, still going strong but I just don't want to take a chance as often as I'm out alone far from any possible help and put the old one in his ZJ again and it's still good. I ended up throwing the original Diehard away, because nobody wanted it (I posted it here before tossing it), and I was tired of storing it, but I think it was still good. Will replace my current Odyssey at five years too, just the way I roll with my LJ. I carry a good little jumpack too. Belt and suspenders approach
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- DAA