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I'm in need of a new battery for my 2001 NB8B as the old one decided to die suddenly. I'm looking at some different ones at the moment and I'm just getting lost. I was wondering if there were any standard/go-to batteries I should be looking at?

There are many threads on this subject. The original AGM batteries last easily over 10 up to probably 15 years. No acid lead gets anywhere near it. You could mount a case for an AGM original to last easily 3 times longer than lead acid but more costly.

PS maybe your 2001 NB battery died suddenly after 15 years. Tricky chargers are useful if the car is not being used regularly. Winter / cold really stresses batteries.

Unfortunately, there's no 'go to battery' - except get an AGM type battery. The OEM Panasonic battery was an AGM type, & yes the ones produced from 1989 to 2000 or so can last 12 or so years. But very few keep their car this long to get the benefit.
Brand-wise, check the price of Mazda's Panasonic AGM battery, if they still sell it, & then price other AGM batteries & decide. And of course, have a look at what MX5 Mania offer:
http://www.mx5mania.com.au/electrical.php

If you want to do some research, don't bother with the search function on here as when I tried I got 38 results for 'battery' none of which related to a replacement car battery. Try the following & focus on the more recent posts if you want an idea of what forumites having been buying:
https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en& ... as_rights=

Mr Morlock wrote:There are many threads on this subject. The original AGM batteries last easily over 10 up to probably 15 years. No acid lead gets anywhere near it. You could mount a case for an AGM original to last easily 3 times longer than lead acid but more costly.

To be precise, an AGM battery IS a lead-acid battery. Here's a good explanation of the different lead-acid constructions:
http://www.driverstechnology.co.uk/car-batteries.htm

Cheers

As work for a (Mitsubishi) dealer, I asked our spare parts manager for help when I needed a new battery for our NB8B.
He arranged one from Battery World which didn't have the breathing tube apparatus and was also a slightly different size to the OEM unit.
...all in the interest of saving a few $$$ as I had been told that a "proper" replacement batter was going to set us back around $400-odd.
As ours is not a daily drive car, we have had issues with the current drain from the alarm resulting in occasional flat battery problems.

Following advice from one of the RACQ callout mechanics, I was advised that my old trickle battery charger wasn't really the right one for the job
and that I should invest in a C-Tec with current technology and use the old one for one of the cars with the old lead acid batteries.

At the same time, I was told that RACQ Batteries are able to supply and install the correct unit (= right size and with the provision for the breather)
for about $340 (from memory, so could be $5 here or there). I also went with one of the terminal devices which can be used to disconnect the battery
when the car isn't going to be used for any length of time. This seems to have helped as we haven't needed to re-charge since the battery was installed
about 18 months ago. The down side being that the radio stations have to be re-set every time we use the car, and the trip meter goes back to zero so
we're not really able to monitor how many k's since we last fuelled the car.

So: happy to recommend the RACQ battery and the disconnection terminal if the car doesn't get a lot of regular use

No longer able to use standard batteries in my car as they like to throw out acid on corners on the track. So if you live in Melbourne and can collect I have a couple of good used batteries for little money. Also a giant one from the missus's Skoda that charges up like a champion as a backup for starting any car on those really cold mornings.