I remember in the "old days" that not only would you get lots of warning when a battery is near the end but also you used to be able to nurse it along by charging long past the time you thought the end was here. I even remember in my first car (1963 Pontiac) one of the terminal posts came loose and pulled out the top of the a battery. I shoved it back in place and wedged it in with a nail and it kept going for quite a while.

In pretty much all of the cars I have had since the late 1990s, you get NO warning when a battery is going south. In many instances with different cars the car would start fine and the next time I tried starting there was nothing (sometimes maybe a click). With older cars I was always able to coax one more start when the battery was "dead" but no so these days.

As a routine I have gotten in the habit of sticking a battery charger on once every several weeks. I have an old one but it has an automatic setting that drops the charge as the battery gets stronger down to about 2 amps. I don't know if this really does any good but it feels good.

Doug