You were fortunate and must have a good dealer. I just invested $60 in the trickle charger due to my recent experience.

My 2005 997S has 7700 miles and was stored for a good part of the last month. I thought I could get away with a month hiatus--it worked last winter--but not this time. I kept telling myself to get the trickle charger, and sure enough my battery was dead when I tried to start it up last week. My service rep claimed that Porsche has never replaced a battery under warranty for him in the past 2 years he has worked there, so I had to pony up $350 for a new battery. I have bought 2 Porsches and a Mercedes from my dealer all within the last 2 1/2 years, so you'd think they might cut me a break! Hell, the bastards didn't even reset my clock to the correct time!

 

Man, Geoffrey, you got raked. Sounds like they had you by the ***** there.

I take it you didn't have the opportunity of being able to price out a new battery at Sears or Costco. Bummer.

 

Porsche brand batter maintainer for $55 including shipping at eBay (what I got). Worked like a charm.

 

HOLY!

You got SCREWED. REALLY screwed.
Hell even an optima is less than that to buy. Like 1/3 that.
And my Volvo 240 sat once for 3 months without starting and cranked over just fine the first time...

 

Whoops, I take it back--it was only $245. It was $175 for the battery and $70 for the labor.

 

Oh, that's MUCH better, you got a steal!