Minimum acceptable battery CCA?

Hey all
My JIII has a 525 cca battery installed and that seems low to me. Since I'm in the mid-west I'm thinking it really ought to be somewhere around 650 cca at the minimum. I didn't replace it but it's not the correct size and as such they discarded the battery cover. What's everyone else in the upper half of the country running for battery power?

thanks
steve a

About 1000 CCA is just right when it's real cold. I haven't shopped for a VW battery lately, but I've bought physically smaller batteries (group size 74) with that rating. Twin 1000's really helped my groggy 6.2 GM in the winter.

550 should be sufficient. My freinds jettaIII TDI has a 550cca battery and he's had no problems.

But it doesn't get down to -1000 degrees in Virginia, now does it?

Originally posted by tadc:
But it doesn't get down to -1000 degrees in Virginia, now does it?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">-1000 hahahaha....that's right, and in Iowa in January it's no fun! A battery can go like that when it's cold, and my car sits for up to two weeks at a time when I'm at school. I just dont need it when the free bus is 2 blocks away and the parking tickets are easily had!

This 525 cca is a replacement battery, not evey the correct size. I have a 675 that I keep in the basement as a spare for my Golf III but I'll move that into service for the diesel. The 525 cca can go with the Golf, that'll work fine and then I have a 540 cca I can move to spare duty in the basement. I would prefer more but for now I'll try this and if it doesn't provide enough service I'll get a larger battery. I'd like to have one in the trunk too that I could switch on for assist but that's a little more work then I car to do right now.

thanks for the input!
steve

Always buy the highest CCA you can. There is no reason to skimp.

I have an Optima, and it's excellent.

If I had it to do over again, I'd order an Optima deep cycle battery.

-mickey

And a bump-bump-bump to the top-top-top...