Autolite Repro Battery Maker Bankruptcy

Ray / RPMSSTANG,

The company that made them and supplied them to the likes of NPD et al declared bankruptcy.

A while back I contacted New Castle Battery to see if they could make a few "dummy" batteries for my Autolite garage display - you know, the same on the outside, just no internal lead plates or acid - basically hollow cases for some garage "eye candy" - also quite fun to toss an empty battery case to someone just to see their reaction.

I was advised they were in the height of the mustang show ordering season and as such, needed all of their cases for repro batteries at the moment, but if I got back with them a few months later when things slowed down a bit, they'd be more than happy to accomodate me.

I called their number off of the webiste a few months later and an employee answered the phone with a different business name. I asked if this was New Castle Battery and they about bit my head off and had nothing but disparaging things to say about New Castle Battery.

After needlessly biting my head off for a while, they finally acknowledgesed that New Castle Battery had declared bankruptcy and that they (the new company) were now making the vintage repro Autolite batteries from the same molds.

I asked if they could make some dummy batteries and they said bluntly "No" and slammed the phone up on me. AS a retail consumer, I didn't much appreciate this and figured I must've been one of the first folks who called during this changeover. Hopefully the new owners of the Autolite battery molds have had sensitivity training, sung a few campfire songs and written "It's not the customers fault" 100 times on the blackboard...

I got the distinct impression that some folks got very hurt in the bankruptcy of New Castle Battery. I advised some resto guys I knew as soon as it happened as well as called a few national parts sellers who advised they were temporaily out of some of the batteries.

The prices on them jumped up around the same time.

Here is a link to the auction sale of new Castle batteries equipment etc that its creditors ordered under bankruptcy:

http://www.dovebid.com/Auctions/Auction10160/bro10160.pdf?AuctionID=10160


Hopefully things will fall back into place before too long as far as repro batteries.

regs,

Steve Pilant








From: RPMSSTANG (Original Message) Sent: 3/5/2006 1:07 AM
My autolite battery repop gave out after 4 years of service recently. after some calls to order another, I was told that there was only a few left over and they weren`t getting anymore. NPD said that they had problems with "shelf life". Do you think that they are changing something about the way they are sold or made?



First Previous 2 of 2 Next Last

Reply
Recommend Message 2 of 2 in Discussion

From: Raytags Sent: 3/5/2006 8:07 AM
Hello!

Since 3-4 years a new autolite Battery is available is a heavy duty or hight crankcase ( Sorry for my english ).


This battery is available by a major supplier see: Mustangs Unlimited, The Paddock, Tony D. Branda, CJ PonyParts.

Ray

Hello! Steve

Thanks for this infos..


Ray

I've noted they've been making a comeback on ebaY recently...