Battery OPTIMA or Exide

I have a red top in my XJ and people say the quality has gone down every time Optima is mentioned but I've had nothing but stellar performance from mine. I was about 7 miles in on a trail 2 weeks ago and my alt died. The battery got me back to the main road before it died enough to not run the engine anymore. A little more than an hour back out and some gnarly rock crawling.

I got 7 years out of my 2010 6V Red Top in the Porsche which I replaced with another and recently purchased a 12V Red Top for the Bus. Battery is more expensive than standard but getting 7+ years vs 4 makes it worth while.

The Optima in my Infiniti is 10 years old and still going strong but I've read so many bad things about them recently, I would be hesitant to buy another one.

I have a red top in my 4 motion b6 Passat. I have not had any electrical issues. As long as the optima matches or exceeds the oem battery cca you’ll be fine.

OK so today I picked up a battery from EuroCarParts, not a pukka VW one but a 100AH Exide Premium one with 5 year warranty. I've had good luck with Exide before so I was happy to go with it

We have one in our 2007 and it has been going strong for almost 7 years.

So, I replaced it with a new optima battery anyways. Still have the issue.... Moved onto the car alternator. Tested it with my DVOM and it was giving out 13.7V at idle.

My optima failed after 1.5 years

Johnson Controls ruined Optima.

Optima batteries have taken a hit in quality in recent years.