Loved it at first, hate it now.

[CurtisB]

I live in So Cal. We have the port of LA. During covid, You could see at hundreds of ships sitting in the ocean from the port to the edge of the horizon. i'm not kidding! The port was full of these huge shipping boats. Dozens of those ships contained batteries. Also, during covid, all the automotive stores had batteries on their shelves that sat for at least 12 months. Same with our dealership backroom stock. And don't forget the cars sitting in the dealer's lots.

So we had tens of thousands of batteries across the U.S. sitting for over a year. Batteries that during the course of normal business, would be bought and sold within 60 days of hitting our port.

At the end of covid, the batteries sitting on the shelves at the automotive stores and dealership were sold, and batteries sitting in the ships moved to the stores. Essentially, 1 year was lost to all batteries.

So, the batteries we purchased within the 3 years after covid sat for a year and most likely wouldn't last 3 years. Some would show deteriation within 2 years.

Couple this with the Hybrid charging system and all cars heavier use of electronics to monitor (er, I mean run) or vehicles and you have a problem that was waiting to happen.

I think within the next 2 years, the reliability of batteries should return to normal, if not sooner.

Just my two cents....

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[MaverickDragon]

Batteries self discharge at varying rates by type even without a load on them, and any relatively new car is loaded with electronics that put a discharge load on the battery.

It's usually not a problem if the vehicle is driven frequently, but in the Maverick, there was a compounding problem with a charge algorithm that did not adequately charge the battery.

The OP got the double whammy, but it's a very common issue with many brands.

With most modern vehicles, it's a good idea to charge their batteries with a good quality maintainer, with an appropriate for the battery type charge controller.
This alone eliminates the issue noted in this thread, and will help ensure that a battery lasts orders of magnitude longer, as it prevents discharge, which causes sulfation that is the primary cause of battery failures in lead acid batteries commonly used in automobiles.

With a decent AGM, and a charger, and/or a proper charge setting, the remaining problem the OP experienced was due to allowing a bird to build a nest under the hood.

I can see why a quick look would make someone assume (incorrectly in this case) that there could be rodent damage, and just about every dealer in existence will replace a harness even when there is a single wire that can be easily repaired, so that's not a Ford thing.