Since you live in Hawaii, I’m going to guess that all your trips are short. That and the heat will kill batteries early. The alternator will not have sufficent time to fully recharge them after every start, and they’ll slowly die.
Post how many miles your car has and it’d be easier to tell.
This is the second go-arund for this topic, I believe. Generally speaking in areas with cold winters, replace the battery before the 5th winter. Another poster wanted to know how long OEM batteries (those supplied in new cars) lasted. Our experience has been 7 years, but others may not be so lucky. Our cars are parked inside overnight and use an engine block heater (where possible) when parked outside.
In October 2011 I replaced the original battery in my 1996 Plymouth Breeze. My experience is certainly unusual; I live in the upper midwest where heat is rarely an issue, and the battery is buried in the wheel well- not accessible from under the hood. I don’t know if that contributed to its longevity. I have also noticed unusual corrosion on my Toyota battery and may try the felt pad mentioned above. Does anyone still treat battery terminals with a coating of Vaseline?
@Mayday–It seems to me that I remember the Checker company placed the battery in the trunk, away from the heat at least in its cab service vehicles. My dad’s 1939 Chevrolet had the battery under the right front passenger floor. You lifted a lid to service the battery. His original battery lasted 7 years which may have been because it was away from the engine heat. My 1950 Chevrolet pickup truck had its battery in the same location. In both vehicles, there was plenty of room under the hood. The location made sense for two reasons: 1) the battery was away from engine heat and 2) the length of the cable to the starter was short.
Four years to the say on my Camry. It was the 60 month Toyota battery. I live in CA desert and all commute is freeway. Since it came with the car that was a CPO, no prorated warranty, so I got the new one from costco. This has been the shortest lasting battery for me so far-except when the alternator has been bad. I used to live in the new England area before.
BS!!! I call BS on that service tech!! all these guys are dead on, batteries typically last 5-7 years. more depending on circumstances.
I am one state above ok4450, (that doesn’t make me better) 
and our summers get as hot too. Hawaii can’t be as hot, but then again, never been there and I don’t believe the set or cast of “Hawaii 5-0” 
Seriously, do it yourself, that’s too much to pay these pompous service techs. I would’ve love to see his face if someone asked him why batteries last 5-7 years.
I replace 3-5 batteries a week at a Lexus dealer. Lexus replacement batteries have a 2 year free replacement warranty. Nearly every battery I replace is at no charge to the customer. I might replace 5 batteries a year at full retail. There is no “high profit” battery sales here. We were instucted to stop performing radom battery tests on customers cars in an effort to reduce warranty claims. After all the cutomer will let us know when the battery fails.
When I worked at a Dodge dealer I would inform a customer of a weak battery about once a month (noticeably slow cranking speed). Where they buy a new battery makes no difference to me, it only pays 12 or 18 minutes labor, I would rather move on the the next job than spend my time trying to convince a customer that they are on borrowed time.
I am not sure what the “BS” is called for. In my case the car decided not to start in the gas station, had to get a jump and the next morning nada. So no real “test” needed. I put the new battery in and the car cranks like a rocker.
If in doubt, carry a jumper battery and change it at the first sign of trouble. They never improve but changing too early is a waste of money.
My first battery oddity happened just last night.
Three year old battery died while the daughter listed to the radio while I was in the McDs getting dinner, a whopping five minutes.
– My batteries generally last me 5-7 years –
luckily the production date sticker on it says I’m still in free replacement warranty, but this is a first for me.
@Mayday “I have also noticed unusual corrosion on my Toyota battery and may try the felt pad mentioned above”.
I have the samel problem with corrosion on my 2011 Toyota Sienna battery. When I had it in for the 30,000 mile service last summer, I asked the service writer to have the technicians clean the battery terminals. This was done–I think I was charged $6 for the service. However, a week ago, I noticed that the corrosion was back. I bought a kit that contains the felt pads and some anti-corrosion spray. The nut on the battery bolt on the positive terminal was so chewed up and the bolt so corroded that I couldn’t do much except spray the terminal with the anti-corrosion stuff, wipe away as much corrosion as I could and put the felt pad on top the terminal but under the rubber boot insulator. I did this a week ago. In the meantime, I bought a battery bolt kit for $1.94 at WalMart. This morning, I did manage to loosen the nut with vice grips on the nut and another vice grips on the other end of the bolt. The clamp did come right off the battery terminal and I didn’t have to resort to using the clamp puller. I think either the anti-corrosion spray or the felt ring did break the corrosion bond after a week. At any rate, I cleaned the terminal and the inside of the clamp with my wire battery terminal brush and with quite a bit of effort, got the nut completely off the battery cable bolt, installed the new bolt and nut. I put the felt ring on the terminal under the clamp and put the clamp back on the terminal. I then sprayed the anti-corrosion on the terminal. I don’t know whether the anticorrosion spray or the substance impregnated in the felt ring worked its way between the clamp and the terminal, but something helped because I wasn’t able to do much with removing the cable clamp last week. We’ll see if these felt rings under the cable clamps help. It can’t hurt anything and the kit containing the anti-corrosion spray and the felt rings is cheap–about $3.00.
I have never had corrosion build up as quickly on a battery terminal as I have with this Toyota Sienna. In fact, I never had a proble with my 1978 Oldsmobile or 1993 Oldsmobile with the side terminal batteries. I haven’t had the problem of excessive corrosion with our 2003 Toyota 4Runner. I did notice that the original equipment battery in my Sienna is made by Johnson Controls. Maybe this manufacurer has a problem with its batteries outgasing and causing the corrosion.
As I said earlier, for no more than the felt rings cost, it’s worth a try.