Best place to buy a car battery?

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E30BeemerLad
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Mon May 11, 2009 10:54 pm

I need a new battery for the E30.

It came with a bosch silver top, but that is on the soarer as the battery gave up on that over the winter.

I priced up a battery for the soarer, after being advised to use a pre-2000 diesel transit battery and nearly everywhere wanted £90+ FFS.

I'm not bothered about being mugged and paying for the damn thing twice for a 3 year warranty, but what have you paid for a battery for say a 325 and where from?
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badassyas
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Mon May 11, 2009 11:02 pm

i bought a battery for my 325i. a while back now. it was some bad ass heavy duty one out of a sprinter i think. bosch silver from ECP. one sec lemme check my boot... code on it is a 1AN. trust me that battery would restart the universe!
d6dph
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Mon May 11, 2009 11:03 pm

Batteries went through a series of price hikes over the last year Lee, No such thing as a cheap battery these days from my experience.

I seem to remember Brian recommending going to the dealer to buy them as the price is not too bad.
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blackcountrybimmerman
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Mon May 11, 2009 11:03 pm

Get one from Halfrauds mate.

OK, you may pay over the odds slightly, but they are good batteries....

If you've got a trade card for them they are quite reasonable TBH...

I paid £56 for a battery for my Fiesta Zetec-S about 12 months ago....
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E30Mark
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Mon May 11, 2009 11:11 pm

Halfords :eek: As Dave said, battery from the dealer would be cheaper!

Few years ago i bought a HUGE battery for the E36 M3 from the dealer, it was only £75 i seem to remember , pleasantly surprised.
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StuBeeDoo
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Mon May 11, 2009 11:12 pm

E30BeemerLad wrote:I need a new battery for the E30.

It came with a bosch silver top, but that is on the soarer as the battery gave up on that over the winter.

I priced up a battery for the soarer, after being advised to use a pre-2000 diesel transit battery and nearly everywhere wanted £90+ FFS.

I'm not bothered about being mugged and paying for the damn thing twice for a 3 year warranty, but what have you paid for a battery for say a 325 and where from?
3 weeks ago, Bosch silver, 325i spec. £46inc VAT. Andrew Page's.
This is why I no longer drive an E30......

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paulmitchell1984
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Mon May 11, 2009 11:48 pm

i bought on in feb for mine got the 3 year warrenty on it, its an energizer thingy cant remember what ampage it was but he looked it up in book and that was about £90
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Boyraceruk
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Tue May 12, 2009 9:19 am

I had to buy a new battery a month ago, £60 fitted from the Varta shop here in Sheffield. SYBS I think their name is. Top blokes.

Also, I left my lights on for five or six hours before my neighbour came round to tell me, started first time the next morning.
TopSod
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Tue May 12, 2009 9:51 am

I got my mechanic to get me mine, all I know is its huge and it was £70, he gets me everything at trade price. The one that was in it already when it died, for some strange reason, was out of a old school mini :mad:

When I had vans I used to get the heavy duty ones from the tire garages, never let me down once.
rossmc88
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Tue May 12, 2009 9:57 am

Halfords if you've got a trade card or can get access to one, cost me £25 to get one for my mum's ford KA
TopSod
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Tue May 12, 2009 9:59 am

Thing to remember is if your battery is still in the boot it has about 14ft of cable to travel down first to start your engine
mhuk
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Tue May 12, 2009 10:28 am

£50 from ebay to my door. I brought two of these! Note they are not labeled as E30 batterys.

There for a later BMW diesel and are great. Good make too (Numax).

PM me and i'll send you the link when I get home tonight (no ebay at work) or failing that look at my ebay feedback martinholmesuk and see the link!
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mhuk
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Tue May 12, 2009 10:29 am

Mines a 325i with battery in the boot ! Battery fits just fine :-)
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Morat
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Tue May 12, 2009 10:50 am

I've got an Exide 70A/H jobby from the wife's E46 in mine - fits nicely on the battery tray under the bonnet if you've still got room with the M50 under there!
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Blitz
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Tue May 12, 2009 11:37 am

Check your local scrap yard as they do batteries for about 10 to 20 quid.
E30BeemerLad
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Tue May 12, 2009 12:38 pm

StuBeeDoo wrote:
E30BeemerLad wrote:I need a new battery for the E30.

It came with a bosch silver top, but that is on the soarer as the battery gave up on that over the winter.

I priced up a battery for the soarer, after being advised to use a pre-2000 diesel transit battery and nearly everywhere wanted £90+ FFS.

I'm not bothered about being mugged and paying for the damn thing twice for a 3 year warranty, but what have you paid for a battery for say a 325 and where from?
3 weeks ago, Bosch silver, 325i spec. £46inc VAT. Andrew Page's.
That's more like it, we have an Andrew Page here in York so I'll give them a try, cheers Stu
George
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Tue May 12, 2009 12:40 pm

Always found ECP to be competitive with respect to battery pricing.
jaistanley
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Tue May 12, 2009 1:15 pm

I work for Unipart and get stuff at cost + 10% and the 325i battery came out at around the same price as a Bosch silver top from ECP! I'd go there and get a price for a Bosch.

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Jon_Bmw
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Tue May 12, 2009 4:06 pm

This isn't a joke, but Vauxhall Go batteries used to be competitive on Trade club. They can find you out a battery from dimensions, but they should also be able to find out from the car it is in, even non GM. Worth a call perhaps?
Motorhole
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Tue May 12, 2009 6:37 pm

Just got a battery for my 318i.

Halfords wanted £94.
BMW wanted £85.

Got a Quantum battery (VAG make) from my local German motor factors for £51.
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Tue May 12, 2009 8:30 pm

I can do E30 in all variants new with three year warranty for £45 collected. Bosch at £57.50.
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capri_rob
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Tue May 12, 2009 11:07 pm

I shopped around for ages when we had the snow earlier this year when the battery in my daily gave up - ECP were the cheapest with a decent ( 3 Year Warranty ) - about £60 IIRC for a big battery ( my daily was a diesel Audi A4 ).

I tried Halfords but they wanted around £100 for the same size battery with the same warranty. Main dealers well over £100 :roll:
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e30topless said : Proper BMW's have 4 headlights, last of the run was the E30 and E34/E32 anything after that is just complete shite
Alex
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Tue May 12, 2009 11:16 pm

ones from the main dealers may be expensive but the one on my mums comapact lasted 10 years, ive also heard others saying they lasted longer :eek:
E30BeemerLad
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Tue May 12, 2009 11:55 pm

ECP are the best at £35, but they won't do mail order and that means a trip to Leeds and back, which is about 60 miles / £ 15 in the Soarer.

Local motor factors are coming in around the £60 mark by the time VAT is added etc
Barx325i
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Wed May 13, 2009 12:44 am

scrapyard clearly!
dickster
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Wed May 13, 2009 2:39 am

I've always rated Varta, avoid Numax like the plague they are truely shit and I speak as someone who used to work for a garage selling them.

Motrio batteries are sold by Renault garages, Motrio is Renault's non-Renault side of things so they do parts for lots of other makes, they are cheap, reliable and in the three years I worked for Renault we only had a handfull returned under warranty. If you know someone in the trade they will get Motrio batteries cheaper or you could pick a large garage and say you work there-they'll never know. They also do a Trade Club price which is dirt cheap but not sure how a non-trade customer would get that, unless you can blag your arse off.
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kam325itouring
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Wed May 13, 2009 2:56 am

Halfords with trade card is the best i reckon, i got mine for £55 with my discount when originally it was 100 plus they have a 3 or 4 year warranty no questions asked!!!!
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richy187
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Wed May 13, 2009 8:22 am

+1 For Halfrauds, but only with atrade card, they are very expensive without, but you do seem to get a massive discount on them on trade :cool:
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romario
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Wed May 13, 2009 9:24 am

http://www.tayna.co.uk/batterygroups/15 ... page1.html

Is the above a good price, it is for a 1990 to 1999 325i?[/url]
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