Battery OPTIMA or OEM Mercedes

My TT has an OPTIMA YELLOW TOP. Battery put in service date 12/2006 9 years on a battery in this heat...un freakin heard of! Very good value for down here.

Been running an optima in both my cars for years. Best decision ever.

Purchased a Red Top 35 today and it fits! I did have to take the bottom bracket and flip it so that the side of the battery facing the headlight [+ -] stayed secure.

I ended up buying a red top optima gel battery....expeeeensiiiive

I had a red top in my mk5 after the OEM one took a dump. It worked very well without any issues.

been using optima redtops for almost 10years in all my vws. even when i was out of warranty they still let me take it in for a free new swap. theyre somewhat overkill for basic cars but w/e. i love them.

But the battery's been fine. I got a Redtop after the factory battery died, then that Redtop eventually did wear out. So I got an Interstate, and it didn't stay the whole winter before getting shuffled into the Cabby or something that was summer duty/easy to start. I got another Redtop for the bug then and it's been fine.

I've owned an optima before. Will never buy another one. I used one in my 4x4 to listen to music while camping, play it until the sub cuts out, get a jump, charge it and repeat. Ended up damaging the battery and it would never hold a charge and struggled to start the truck after a weekend of camping. Tossed it out after 2 years.

Optima is not what it used to be. Total and utter crap.

Every optima battery I have seen in customer vehicles (I'm an auto tech) goes to crap in about 6 months to a year. I think these types of batteries are more sensitive to low voltages. They also don't hold up at all during the freezing winter months.