Two Batteries
What are the chances?
Last Sunday, shortly after lunch, the car all loaded and the house locked up, we were ready to head back to Milwaukee for week two of radiation.
Wheezy wouldn’t start. Despite having started not three hours previously on a run to the grocery store, now the battery was very not okay. Half a crank and then clicking.
I called my dad, who had just gotten home from church. While he headed across town to rescue us, John instructed me on how to find his multi-tester, and he was able to check the battery voltage. We definitely needed a new battery. John returned to his recliner to rest, and I popped onto the website of the nearby auto parts store and ordered a new battery for in-store pickup. Here’s where driving a bog-standard boring General Motors product like a Buick pays off: in an emergency, your parts are likely in stock most places.
Dad arrived, I got the confirmation email that the battery was ready for pick up, and my dad commenced fighting with the junction box that’s screwed to the top of the battery on a Buick Verano. “GM is gonna GM,” I might snark to auto-enthusiast friends. The engineers and bean counters in Detroit clearly replace their own batteries on a strict schedule and never in an emergency on short notice, like you and I do, mere mortals that we are. Thank goodness it was warm on Sunday, and not bitterly cold. Batteries usually die in the bitter cold.
When we got the battery free, we saw the brand name was for an auto repair chain that doesn’t exist anymore. The date code on the side of the battery was 2019.
You should know that the average auto battery life is around three years. This battery made it seven years.
We ran to the store, dragging the dead battery in for the exchange, got the new battery in (my Dad has done this sort of thing eleventy million times; he’s a retired auto mechanic), and then we checked that the car’s alternator was charging the new battery properly, this time with my Dad’s multi-tester.
While I was starting the car so my dad could check the voltage at the battery, my phone rang. My daughter’s car, across town, wouldn’t start. What are the chances?
“Hey, Dad, how do you feel about doing another battery?” He just laughed.
It turns out that my daughter’s Mazda had the same brand of battery, from the same now-defunct auto parts chain, with the same date code on it of 2019. And it died on the same day, almost to the hour, lasting about twice its expected lifespan.
My daughter: “It deserved an honorable discharge.”
Wow, you got your money's worth out of those batteries! I'm sure the company that made them was bought out by a company making less efficient batteries for more money. Smh
Many years ago, I had a Chevy Cavalier. The heater went out on it during a severe January cold snap. Before my husband got around to fixing it, my mother-in-law called. Same car model, same problem. Do these parts somehow "know"?
You're lucky, as am I, to have a mechanic in the family.