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Originally Posted by 865sp300e
When buying a battery always check the little round sticker on the side of the battery. It will have a code, e.g. A06, which means the battery was made in January 2006. Another example G05 = July 2005. A=Jan, B=FEB, C=Mar, etc. The alpha character is the month and two numbers are the year. This tells you the manufacture date of the battery. I always look for the freshest battery on the shelf. At times I've seen six month old batteries in a store.
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Absolutely the right and smart thing to do!
Since modern batteries are built and shipped "wet" they discharge at about 1 percent per day from the day they are built, so a 90-day old "new" battery is significantly disharged. This is not a problem as long as you don't immediately put a cranking load on it, so CHARGE the battery to full charge before you do, or the battery's life could be shortened.
I've bought Autozone and Costco (Kirkland) batteries. They're both made by Johnson Controls. I look for the freshest one in the store and then charge them prior to cranking. If the car hasn't been driven in a week I charge before cranking, or at least once a month.
I swap a 26R back and forth between the 190 and MR2 since I swap them as my driver every six months. That way I don't have a battery on the shelf to maintain. The 26R is a bolt in substitute for both the OE Group 48 for the Merc and the OE Group 35 for the MR2. This one is about five years old and the one in my Cosworth Vega (which I only drive about once a month) is about four years old.
Both are still in tip-top condition, and I expect them to give about 7-8 years of service.
Duke