Bought new battery a couple weeks ago. Am in storm area, not sure if that is relevant but have taken on lots of water. Automatic trans. Turn key and it acts like the battery is dead but it isn't, the lights come on and electrical works with the exception of starting. No turn over, no noise other than an initial click. This is my only vehicle, so any help is appreciated. Thanks and desparate

 

If the pellet in your key is dirty enough or the pellet got demagnitized, it will set your alarm system.
Clean key with water, dry it and try again or use a spare key.

Note when the vats system is activated, you have to wait 5 minutes for the system to reset.

Check battery voltage also, you could have left a door ajar and drained the battery.

 

Tried using spare key, not it. We have been storming for days here, lots of puddles/rivers to drive through. Does my car have a starter solenoid or something similar? Thanks for the help...

 

If you do not hear a click when you turn the key, that means your starter is not getting energized or the solenoid is either full of water or went bad(not likely).

Check your battery voltage and check to make sure the battery connections are tight and clean.
Had a loose connection once, drove the car and when I tried to start it, the lights came on and no start, tightened the terminal and away I went.

 

If you hear the starter solenoid click, then you don't have VATS problems. You may have a poor battery cable connection and its pretty easy to remove cables (neg first) and clean the cable lugs, bolts, and battery terminals and replace the cables (neg last). You can check the battery by having someone hold the starter on while you measure the battery terminal voltage. It should not fall below 9.0 volts or your battery is discharged, cable connections need cleaning, or the battery is at the end of its life no matter what its age! You can tell the state of charge by measuring the battery voltage at its terminals with no load. 12.0 volts and below, discharged, charge it up overnight with a battery charger. 12.9 volts and higher, fully charged and linear in between. Another cause is inside the starter. At the end of the starter solenoid stroke, two large copper contacts are forced together switching 12v to the starter motor. These contacts get blackened and pitted until they don't make a good enough connection to supply the 100+ amps it requires. If you keep hitting crank over and over and finally it starts cranking, this is a good sign that those contacts are at fault. You can replace the contacts.