Andy,
 
Thanks for your reply. You've reminded me about my first car, a 1968 Pontiac
Tempest Station Wagon (350 V8 2 speed slush box) with 80,000 miles on it when I
purchased it. I needed new tires and EVERYBODY I asked for advice was sure that
the car wasn't going to last much longer, so I should purchase the least
expensive tires I could. I owned the car for another 80,000 miles and must have
replaced the tires 3 times.
 
That said, I have a battery powered backup sump pump, and after having "gone
through" 6 "normal" lead acid marine batteries in almost 20 years, none of which
have ever had to be called upon to run the sump pump, a few months ago I
"invested" in the Sears Platinum battery, their successor to their Optima line
of batteries. Perhaps I will take your advice and put a Sears Platinum/Optima
battery in my LW300.
 
--Bruce 

--- On Sat, 5/30/09, Andy <threeoctaves@...> wrote:


From: Andy <threeoctaves@...>
Subject: [Club Saturn] Re: Battery question: 2001 SATURN L SERIES WAGON LW300
To: clubsaturn@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, May 30, 2009, 2:48 PM








Bruce-
In my book, the best deal is frequently NOT the cheapest battery, it's the
lowest-cost- per-year battery. I had a car for 29 years, a four banger 2-liter
motor, similar to my wife's '94 SL2, and had no problems after I installed a red
top Optima gel cell. It lasted for fourteen years. These batteries just flat
last. If you plan to keep the car more than a few years, consider one of these
over the wet cell dinosaurs.

They also do not self destruct if you kill them from lights-on brain-fade
episodes, which I did many times. Tho my experience may not be typical, they're
virtually indestructable, and I will use nothing else.

I don't know the model/type with it installed, would have to remove the hold
down strap to see. If you want that info let me know. Just go with the factory
specs for type, CCA, and reserve, and you'll be fine, I suspect.

I just checked install date, it's April 2002. 7 years, still going strong. Cost
for this battery is about $11 per year so far, every year it goes down when I
don't have to replace it.

Hope this helps.

Andy

--- In clubsaturn@yahoogro ups.com, Bruce Rubin <barubin_cars@ ...> wrote:
>
> I’m pretty sure that I need to finally replace my original
2001 SATURN L SERIES WAGON LW300’s battery.
> Does anybody have an recommendations regarding
> 1. Which brands of batteries to consider
> 2. Whose to avoid
> 3. Where I might get the best deal?
>
> TIA



















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