After 5 years and 41,000 miles, the battery in my CX-5 Touring seems to have died. Vehicle wouldn't crank so I jumped it and it was fine. Can anyone suggest an AGM battery that fits as close as possible to the original unit? I'd rather keep the same terminal locations and find a batter that's "plug and play".

 

Look at and consider OPTIMA.

I currently owned for street 4 vehicles and they all have an OPTIMA battery. And all are modified to some degree as well.

The 2018 Mazda 3 2.5 Touring is running a OPTIMA RED Note: I run 4 Rockford amps one is a sub-woofer operating 2 12's along with a few other aftermarket electronics'. Point is the OPTIMA RED is more then adequate for a stock or slightly electronically augmented MAZDA!

 

I have had good luck with O’Reilly Auto Parts batteries (but any decent parts store will have various batteries for your car). You need a group 35 battery. It looks like AGM units are right around $200 and non AGM can be as little as $80. I most recently purchased a battery for my '11 Tacoma from Walmart (their own Everstart brand) and it has been fine so far.

 

There is no such thing as good luck when it comes to a car battery. You either get a good quality one and do routine preventive maintenance or expect sheeet to prematurely fail.
Many battery brands and even some mentioned (not OPTIMA ) are made from recycled battery components and lead. You get what you pay for. That warranty is not comforting if you are "bum fricken Egypt" and the battery fails.

I might also suggest look carefully at the manufactured date on any battery before you purchase it regardless who offers it. I am not talking about any sticker that is placed on the battery but the actual date melted into the lower case.

In our shop we now only use use suppliers that have all new materials unless the customer is on a strict budget and then must only give them a 30 labor free replacement. Unlike Interstate or OPTIMA in which we will give a full years labor free replacement.

In the USA the the top retailers selling house brand and some well known branded name batteries made with up to 80% recycled batteries material are...
AutoZone
Walmart
O'Reily Auto Parts
Advance Auto Parts
Pep Boys


Facts:
Most aftermarket car batteries sold in the U.S. are made by three companies that build them for retailers: Johnson Controls, which supplies more than half of the market; Exide; and East Penn. They are sold under various names and *built to the specifications of retailers, so *performance can vary.

AC Delco
AutoCraft
Bosch
DieHard
DuraCell
DuraLast
EVERSTART
Interstate
NAPA
*Optima
SuperStart


This means unless you ask or it is advertised or contact Johnson control, Exide and East Pen,and it is not specifically proprietary information as per the contract with the retailer you are likely not going to know if the battery you buy is made from 100% new material.

*Optima is 100% new material, at least 2019 and most older production dates that I am aware of. I have not needed to contact OPTIMA directly this year for any warranty adjustments and my records show I have personally sold 37 Optima batteries this year!
140 Interstate Batteries. But I have a few RV Dealership accounts. LOL

 

My vote is for AC Delco.

 

Agreed, I had a 1972 El Camino with a Delco...lasted 11 years.

 

Not if you lived in Colorado, and I guess you never had to change the Generator in that 11 years either...

Not saying you did or didn't get what you claimed but I do enjoy "THE ONE" who is the exceptions to the rule so to say on forums. hehehehe!
Oh and I owned a 72 El Camino and loved it!
This was a one owner Southern CA vehicle bought new in 1972 before I owned it @ 60k miles in excellent shape and well maintain with all the Maintenance history (not even any scratches in the bed) which was in Northern CA
Now here is the thing I know for a fact that I changed the battery twice, once was because generator failed and took out the battery. The second time I needed to change the battery was because needing to convert to a top post battery for a battery Clamp design that I was helping to engineer to be offered in SEARS chain store in the late 70's early 80's. The El Camino pristinely clean engine bay was used to picture the clamp for advertising

 

Actually I DO live in CO...Golden. I bought the car new in Detroit thinking I would save $$ on delivery charges. But found out they were assembled in Louisiana or somewhere down there. Only problem was a paint blemish on right quarter panel which turned into a rust spot over the years. That 350 engine was bullet proof.

 

Yes I saw that you lived in CO as I read your stats info that is why I commented.

The 350 was and still is a GREAT ENGINE!


My El Camino eventually got a early 327 in place of the low HP 350 but the 327 had a CROWER Fuel Injection and a fully manual valve bodied 400TH replacing TH350 it came with and the TH400 had among many other mods a "true" 3500Stall converter and also swapped out the 10 bolt rear having to high a ration of 3:73 to a 12 bolt with 4:11's. LOL
But I left the body and interior completely stock with the exception of a set of manual gauges and a very large Tach.

Really BATERIES will live for the most part 75% of their claim service life if the charging system is kept in factory spec working order and the battery terminals and battery ground leads are service and kept clean. This is not an opinion