whats a good battery to buy?

Optimas are nice, if you can afford them. Don't leak, seem to last longer than most. But if you are going to leave a car sit for long periods (weeks or months) it is a good idea to put on a float charger (1-2 amp trickle charge) once in awhile to keep the battery full. This is especially important for newer vehicles with electronics that constantly drain the battery, ablet tiny amounts for the computer, ABS, whathaveyou.

Any car used mainly for short trips will also eventually kill a battery quicker that one whose battery gets a full charge on a regular basis. My wife's Sebring is murder on batteries because she has a 2 mile trip to work and does alot of shopping and running the kids around within a three mile radius of home. That car gets a new battery almost every year. I calculated it had 9 starts for 10 miles of driving one particular day last week.