The present invention is directed toward a handheld battery tester that automatically
determines and displays to the user a nominal battery rating (e.g., CCA rating)
in response to the user entering certain vehicle information, e.g., the make and
model of the vehicle. This eliminates the need to read the battery CCA rating from
the battery and eliminates the need to check a secondary reference to be sure that
the battery in the vehicle is rated high enough for that vehicle. Preferably, the
battery tester is a processor-based battery tester that automatically uses the
determined nominal CCA rating rather than making the user enter the displayed value.
