[stillbourne]

Surprising. I bought a 2015 RAV4 used in 2017. It still had the factory battery, I didn't have to replace that until last year when it finally bit the dust. I think that's the longest I've ever had a factory battery last on a car.

[organsnyder]

Looks like the issue is with replacement batteries that aren't quite the same dimensions as the OEM ones.

[rwaksmunski]

Some OEM batteries are made in Japan with virgin, not recycled, lead. My Lexus (Panasonic) battery lasted 11 years.

[hunter2_]

Expectations of battery life, and typical experiences, assume a certain amount of stress such as extreme temperatures and occasional deep cycling. Someone who keeps their car garaged, never plays the radio for a while after shutting the engine off, and never accidentally drains the battery is going to have an outlier like you're describing. I'm no expert but my understanding is that these types of (potentially avoidable) stresses are majorly significant contributors to a runaway process of internal breakdown/corrosion that determines how much longer it'll work.

Lithium batteries like to be stored at 50-60% charge, while lead acid car batteries like to be stored at 100% charge.

[jacquesm]

How would you know which ones are and which ones aren't? This sounds like myth to me, though I can see how lead recycling might lead to lead of inferior quality if it isn't done properly I can't see this happening in Japan (though I've seen plenty of examples of battery recycling in less developed countries where I'm pretty sure the lead is not going to be very pure).

[tony_cannistra]

seems like you're suggesting that recycling lead has some kind of impact on battery longevity? Can you provide more detail there?

[jacquesm]

If you just re-melt, scoop of the crap and recast the lead you may end up with less pure lead than if you were to 'properly' (for instance by reducing it to get rid of any lead oxide) recycle it.