In my experience with GM products (4 in the last 9 years) I've averaged between 4 and 5 years per battery.

2003 Silverado - 3.5 years for a battery
2007 Silverado - 5 years for a battery
2007 HHR LT - going on 5 years
2008 HHR SS - going on 4 years

I expect to replace the 2 batteries in the HHR's soon. Probably will do it before winter.

 

Easy problem to resolve. Have the battery load tested, any battery shop will do that for you at no charge. Then its no longer a mystery as to what condtion your battery is in. A year ago I had the battery in my 2007 HHR tested, it checked out just ok, not great. Since we were about to leave on an extended trip I replaced it. No regrets, and even more important no battery problems.

 

My HHR and my GTP are the only factory Delco's I lost before 10 years. I think the Fiero went 17-18 years and I only changed it because I thought I pushed it far enough. I am 27 years in this week with the car and I am only on the second battery.

 

Bought my HHR new in 11/07 and yesterday when i went to start it,,
nothing, had to manually open the door, tried starting it, nothing,
then key wouldnt come out of ignition. so put jumpers on the battery
which was a pain cuz i couldnt open the gate,, soon as i put jumpers on it,
horn beeped and i started it,, but shut it off so as not to overheat the alternator,
i have seen the alternator go bad trying to charge a fully discharged lead acid battery.
didnt want to take a chance.
So, by chance anyone have recommendations for a new one,
I am leaning towards an AC delco
95$ at the dealer
124$ at autozone

 

I'd stick with the AC Delco - the current one lasted almost 5 years in what I assume would be a hot climate (?), and at $95 at the dealer, you got a good deal there.

 

About 40 minutes with the headlights on, was that the question? I would not give that tiny battery of any manufacture more than 4 years till total failure, it just does not have the physical size to have big "guts".

 

The BMW is 13 years and 180,000 miles, think I should change it yet ?

like the HHR it's in the trunk, takes up half of it, but there is still room for 4 bodies!!!

 

Also keep in mind that even a single deep discharge on a typical automotive battery will damage it, resulting in smaller capacity and/or shorter useful life.

 

I would guess that a few things contributed to its demise, #1 age, coming up on 5 yrs, #2 I have a radar detector plugged into a power outlet, #3 I havent been driving much lately,

 

battery tender is very handy to extend life when hhr is not in use