A good example of "inflation" at work

[lloyd3]

I had to go buy a battery yesterday for my car. It had either drained down so-far it wouldn't charge or it had a dead short internally (caused by dendrite growth?). Long-story short, we had an appliance failure in the house (the cloths dryer) and in order to swap out such an appliance, the car had to be removed from the garage. We (my son & !) had actually attended the local "Cars & Coffee" just two days earlier (too-darn early BTW, there's still snow on the ground here in places!) and had discovered the battery challenge then (after we drove it to the show and it wouldn't start to go home, normally that short drive would charge it enough to get it home). Went back to the O'Reilly's I'd bought it from 3-years ago (or so) and they wanted $240 for the same battery I'd paid $80 for in 2020-21. Lordy!

Ended up buying a cheaper version at WalMart for $160 (since I don't use a battery tender, cheaper likely makes more sense).  Is there a better way to make a battery last in a car that doesn't get regular use?

What in God's name would drive up the cost of a plain old automotive battery like that? That's a 300% price increase. That's just nuts!

[marshallfry01]

Man everything has shot up like that. And the quality in my opinion has went the other direction. I have an 03 Silverado that sits in the carport a lot. I don't drive it unless I need 4 wheel drive or a trailer hitch. So it sits for a month at a time quite often. I have to replace the battery nearly every other year. Up until 2020ish time frame, I could usually get 3+ years out of the same brand.

I'm sure a battery tender would help, but it still doesn't change the fact that the same brand used to last twice as long, and used to be a third of the price.

[b5blue]

I just got a new battery for my 07 Dakota, 90.00. Everything must kinda suck if you chose to live in Cal. like the dog. 

[Nacho-RT74]

I'd say the $80 you paid for the batt back in 2021 was an old stock batt still with non updated price. So IMHO taken from an unrealistic price list still for back in the days. So the inflation rate could be not exact for this comparison.

As far I recall checking on line in USA websites an average price for a 27 group batt it was still on $180 rate on those days

[Kern Dog]

I'd say the $80 you paid for the batt back in 2021 was an old stock batt still with non updated price. So IMHO taken from an unrealistic price list still for back in the days. So the inflation rate could be not exact for this comparison.

As far I recall checking on line in USA websites an average price for a 27 group batt it was still on $180 rate on those days

I may have it wrong but it seems that the vendors will raise prices based on their anticipated costs for replacing their stock. A part that they've had on the shelf for months (that they paid a low wholesale price for) is still subject to the higher sale price because of their cost to restock the shelves.
Gasoline is like that. A radio talk show host here used to say up like a rocket, down like a feather. That does seem to hold true. We see gas prices at $4.00 per gallon for months, then a news report comes out that some rag head blew themselves up 7000 miles away and then gas prices are at $5.00 per gallon despite that every drop of crude oil takes well over a month to go from a tanker to a refinery and into gas stations.