As with anything else, a lot depends on how you use the item in question.
In terms of batteries, you have to remember how they work. When you first start the car, you are drawing a lot of power, and then the alternator basically takes over once the car is running and ... tops up the battery. I'm being careful to not say charges the battery.

So, in a scenario where the car sees a lot of short trips daily, that battery is not going to last as long as one that sees one of two long trips daily. If you get up, drive two miles to the gym, drive back, take your kids to school, go to the donut shop, stop at the post office, etc and each one of those trips is very short, especially in adverse weather, yeah, your battery ain't gonna last long.


I drove about 15 miles each way to work. The battery in my car lasted 10 years, and that car sat for most of 4 years once a motorcycle took over my commuting duties. It was not a name brand battery, some generic cheap thing, and wasn't the correct size or amperage for my E320.

Even once the car was basically sitting most of the time, i'd start it and go around the block once a week and give her the old Italian tune up once a month The Toyota Corolla sized battery held up for a long time because it rarely did short trips and I lived in sunny So Cal at the time.