Third day with new car, dead 12V battery, second day in a row :(

Now, that is a lot better.

I went through the checkout to see the shipping charges, and they said that this item was not shippable, probably because it is hazardous material. So, you can't get it online at a discounted price.

Moreover, it is a standard battery. It is not an enhanced flooded-cell battery (EFB). Therefore, it is no different than any DIN H4 battery you could buy at an auto store. It is made by Varta as well as Exide if not more OEM manufacturers.

Car Battery 12V 51Ah/52Ah Škoda 000915089C

Batería Economy ‘51Ah-12V’ ORIGINAL VW SEAT SKODA AUDI, 000915105DC 000915089C | Tienda de recambios wagenparts.com

Given that it is neither EFB nor AGM and I can't get a discount on it because it is not shippable, I will pass. Why deal with a Volkswagen dealer to get a standard DIN H4 battery you can get at every store? Besides, you won't see what you will be getting when you place the special, unreturnable order at the Volkswagen dealer. It is not to mention that it would look odd to have a Volkswagen-labeled OEM battery in a Toyota. People might think that you got it at a junkyard when you sell your car.

As I said, I am planning to get an ACDelco LN1 AGM from RockAuto.

 

Ok, you’re not arguing? I put the part number on the post. I still don’t know what all this outrage is about. I didn’t make anything up. Do whatever you want. I will probably call an Audi or VW local dealer if I need a battery just to see, but it will be at list price or more the way these guys are here. Also a Chevy dealer to see about a Delco. Maybe some other makes. Since I have a battery monitor, my battery isn’t going to be going low if I have any say about it.

 

I don't know what outrage you are talking about. You made incomplete/inaccurate claims, and I asked for more information. The price ($72) you posted didn't exist, and they are not available to ship even at higher discounted prices @Trollbait kindly quoted because it is hazardous material. We have been talking about batteries, but you seem to easily get offended and lash about instead of exchanging information.

 

Good choice on the Delco in my opinion. Seems like an upgrade from the Walmart. No love for the True Start I guess?

 

Toyota TrueStart is also a standard flooded battery, not an enhanced flooded-cell battery (EFB). It is not to mention that it is probably expensive. So, I want to upgrade to an AGM battery. An EFB doesn't seem to exist in the EN LN1 size in the US aftermarket. However, the newer Volkswagen OEM EN LN1 batteries could be EFBs, but you would have to take a chance on whether they are and deal with the Volkswagen dealers. Nevertheless, an AGM battery is probably a better choice for a Prius than an EFB anyway.

 

The Turquoise Jewel's battery seems to be running at about 53% capacity (12.10 V open circuit) since the full drain in August. I don't know whether the full drain caused the capacity degradation or the capacity degradation caused the full drain in a month or less of idling. The car is a month short of four years since the manufacture now.

I reduced the contestants to three:

EverStart Maxx 140R standard flooded-cell (Walmart): $159.84 + $14.00 core − $14.00 core return
ACDelco LN1 AGM (RockAuto): $135.79 + $12.00 core + $11.99 shipping − $6.79 coupon − $10 AutoZone gift card for core return
Uplus LN1 AGM (Amazon): $132.99 + $0 core + $0 shipping − $10 AutoZone gift card for core return

Uplus seems to be a really good company using the latest technology; so, I decided to go with Uplus. It was also by far the cheapest.

I will update on how the Uplus LN1 AGM works on a Prius.

Final thoughts: Flooded-cell batteries don't seem to work well on Priuses, and they seem to require AGM batteries. However, Toyota has downgraded to flooded-cell batteries in Gen 4/Gen 5 because they wanted to reduce the weight of the car by about 5 lb (AGM batteries are heavier) and reduce the cost of the car (by about $100?) Perhaps they will skip the AGM technology in Gen 6 and go with an LFP 12-V battery.

Uplus LN1 AGM battery on Amazon

 

AGM battery on your Turquoize Jewel ......very interested to know how this works out .