I don't think so. A major study by Douglas Battery Co. found that the average battery life expectancy was 43 months. Little has changed in lead-acid battery technology to support longer warranty periods. Longer warranty periods have been driven by the marketing department, not the engineering department.

Of course, the nice thing about "anecdotal" evidence is that you can disregard any anecdotes that don't support your thesis. I suspect that you won't find any reliable data that shows that the majority of batteries outlive their warranty period.

Here is the Die Hard view of life expectancy:
http://www.sears.com/ue/home/map_cold.jpg
The average for the southern half of the country is around 3 years.