Letting them go dead sitting idle is one of the quickest ways to kill a battery. I have an old Cherokee that sits in a garage in Mexico for months between starts, the new Costco battery lasted less than a year. The best thing besides keeping them charged is location, Mercedes puts most behind the firewall, isolating them from the hot engine compartment. My C-Class has averaged 8 years battery life since 2002, and that's parking outside in Phoenix. It might even be worth relocating a battery to the trunk, or under the bed of a pickup truck.