jrt@hou5g.UUCP (Jaime Tormos) (03/08/84)
I am another case of someone who went through 4 `Die Hard's in 5 years. It was then that I postulated that Sears may be doing that on purpose. I.E. (my theory) > Give the battery a longer guarantee than it merits. > Charge more for the extra guarantee, and pro-rate it, so that statistically those that do return their batteries for warranty, will be covered by the additional charge (no pun, ha ha). > You have just `hooked' millions of people into buying Sears batteries. That is, for those that do not have problems with the `Die Hard'..."Gee Martha, it really works" -- (Little do they realize that it lasted only because most people but new cars every three to five years). For those that DO have problems, in order to get credit for the remaining pro-rated warranty, they have to but ANOTHER Die Hard !! and so the cycle continues, sucking victims into its vortex, never to be seen again. The same ideas work for their infamous tires....Overcharge, Overrate, Over-warranty, and hook that sucker back in. For a while I was hooked on their tires, then I saw the light and switched to B.F.Goodrich. Since then, the average lifetime of my tires has gone from 20000 miles to over 45000 miles per tire, at comparable prices, if not less. One note, I have owned the SAME car for 14 years, I service it regularly, and when I was having all of those problems with `where America shops', I was having them do front end alignments, electrical system checks, shock replacements and anything else they could think of to help with `my problem'. (** FRODO **) alias hou5g!jrt p.s. I bought a J.C.Penney forever battery seven years ago and I have not had a single problem since.
brad@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Brad Spear) (03/10/84)
Hasn't anybody had good luck with Die Hard batteries? The only Die Hard that has gone bad on me went at about 70 months (just less than 6 years), and the only reason for that is probably the fact that I didn't care for it regularly, and it ran dry. That must have been too much for it, because it never acted quite as well (even though I refilled and checked it regularly) and finally gave up a month or two later. I've got about 3 years on the Die Hard in my car now, and I haven't had any problems at all, which is good, since my 14 year old carburetor is showing it's age, and giving me problems starting the engine. Speaking of which, does anybody have any experience with aftermarket four-barrels? Brad Spear sdcrdcf!brad
dave@rocksvax.UUCP (Dave Sewhuk) (03/13/84)
By experience with Diehards for my diesel bunny is as follows:
1) 3 weeks
2) 11 months
3) ? so far 1 year
Moral: I am never buying a Diehard again...
--
Dave
Arpa: Sewhuk.HENR@PARC-MAXC.ARPA
uucp: {allegra, rochester, ritcv, ritvp, amd70, sunybcs}!rocksvax!davemsc@qubix.UUCP (Mark Callow) (03/14/84)
> Hasn't anybody had good luck with Die Hard batteries? The only Die Hard > that has gone bad on me went at about 70 months > Brad Spear > sdcrdcf!brad Yes, but you live in Southern California. -- From the Tardis of Mark Callow msc@qubix.UUCP, decwrl!qubix!msc@Berkeley.ARPA ...{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!qubix!msc, ...{ittvax,amd70}!qubix!msc
billb@teklabs.UUCP (Bill Beran) (03/14/84)
I had a DieHard battery in a Corvair Rampside pick-up (!!) that
lasted so long I lost track of it. I think it was about seven years.
I was not very diligent about maintainence, either. It didn't die
catastrophically, but a slow death like most batteries do. I don't
remember why I didn't replace it with another DieHard, but it was
probably because they had gotten too expensive in the intervening time.
I still have the Rampside and just recently purchased a Corvair
eight door van. Maybe even rarer than the Rampside! No flames against
Corvairs, please. I like the trucks and that's my own vice!
A J.C. Penny battery in a Fiat 124 Spyder died for me after four
years. Firestone replaced it with no questions asked with one of their
four year batteries. I sold the car soon after, so have no follow-up.
However, a few years ago, a close friend had a J.C. Penny battery
explode in the engine compartment of his van and spray the acid gel
all over. The battery was not very old. I remember that J.C. Penny
shelled out about $600 for acid neutralization and repainting of
his engine compartment.
There must be some Corvair lovers out there!!
Bill Beran
Imaging Research Lab
Tektronix
{decvax,ucbvax}
!tektronix!teklabs!billbmlh@abnjh.UUCP (M. L. Holt) (03/14/84)
I have owned several DieHard batteries, and all have performed past the 5 year mark. Further, and more important to me, they performed very reliably and had great capacity for deep discharge. I went to JC Penny ones because I keep cars a long time, and their warranty was better. Those have also performed well. I plan to return to the Sears one now that JCP bailed out. Mike Holt abnjh!mlh