Artoo is now approaching his 5th birthday and I have been looking at a Red Top for him as 5 years on a stock OEM battery is all one can ask for. Since the original is still working I have been looking around for a good deal on a Red Top 34R for a while but have been hesitant as the prices seem to be excessive. The one I got for a friend a couple of months ago was $200 and last week AutoZone quoted $215 which I thought was crazy. Yes I know the 35 fits as well as the 75/25. But I wanted the exact size for Artoo and wanted wanted the posts in the right place.

Anyway, I found a good, reasonably priced source for the 34R in the AutoBarn eBay store (search autobarn57). Here's the listing on eBay <http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT &viewitem=&item=5676846186&rd=1&rd=1>

They have 90 or them and the listing says "Optima Top Post 800 CCA Reverse Terminal Battery" so it's not until you read the entire description to you realize it is a 34R. And at $139.95 plus $7.50 is a bargain. Took only 3 days to get here. Ten minutes to install and I figure Artoo is good for another 5 years.

So if you have a 2002 or 2003 with the original OEM battery and don't want to worry next winter, get em while they are available. Not that I need one but someone may even arrange a group buy as I suspect there are a bunch of MCSs that have marginal batteries at this point.

Rich

 

That's a good price. Sears has them for $160. I'll have to remember Autobarn when my current Optima dies (a long while from now).

 

The quote I got from Sears was 169.99 plus tax but they said it would take a week or more to get as they don't stock the 34R in the stores. AutoBarn shipped it to my door in 3 days for a lot less. I did ask Sears of the Red Top ever goes on sale and they said they are never included in their battery sales.

One good thing (there are many) about the Optimas is that they can be shipped so this was not only cheap, but easy too.

One note for anyone considering installing this themselves. It is really easy and I hook up another battery via cables up front so you don't loose the clock or any other settings.

Rich

 

Remy Battery has them in stock for $123, and they have a return policy.
http://www.remybattery.com/ProductIn...uctid=34R-1050