I had tires put on my 2015 Toyota Camry. There is nothing in car manual about alignment. Is it necessary? Can’t you tell driving the car if it needs to be aligned?
Thanks
It’s best to get the alignment done whenever you get new tires to ensure they don’t wear unevenly or prematurely.
Most alignment warranties I’m aware of are 12 months, so I get mine checked about once a year, right before the warranty on the last one expires. That way every other alignment is free.
Sometimes you can tell when the car is out of alignment and sometimes you can’t. It depends on which part is out of adjustment.
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The alignment can easily be far enough off to wear the tires unevenly without you feeling it as you drive. I always get an alignment with new tires.
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+1
Why jeopardize the tread life of new tires by cheaping-out on wheel alignment?
I am going the other direction. If there was no abnormal wear pattern on the previous set, I would say alignment is not required.
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Here’s my thought on that position. The alignment generally gets worse over time due to hitting bumps and other factors. If the previous set started with perfect alignment and ended with alignment that’s somewhat off, the tires might not show enough abnormal wear to be easily observed. However, if the new tires now start with alignment that’s somewhat off and end with alignment that’s way off by that point, there’s much more chance of abnormal wear. In fact, if you assume the alignment gets evenly worse with time and you do the math, you’d expect the average alignment to be three times worse for the new set compared to the old set.
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I will concede that point. Logical explanation.
I’m going against the grain here and say NEVER get an alignment unless there is a verifiable problem. My experience (over 50 years) has been that if there wasn’t a problem before getting the alignment, there will be after. It seems that most alignment tech’s don’t really know what they are doing and most alignment packs are not properly calibrated.
If your tires have lasted as long as you expected them to, there are no unusual wear patterns and the vehicle drives straight and true, do not mess with it. The alignment done at the factory is done on a machine where the tires are on rollers and spinning. This is far more sensitive than any static alignment rack.
Unless you have done something that actually bent suspension parts, this is as good as it can get. Once you have suspension parts replaced, then you do have to get an alignment, but it is not required just because you bought new tires. BTW, I do my own alignments when needed.
Edit: my daughter has a 2014 Camry with 90k+ miles and drives over some very unmaintained roads to get to work everyday. Her factory alignment is perfect. I also do not recommend the frequent rotations called for because it can hide alignment issues. Very small alignment issues can take up to 20k miles to start showing a pattern on the tires, but will wear out the tires prematurely. Her last set of tires, Michelin Premiers, lasted their normal 60k with only two rotations. One done when the front tires were at about half worn so that in the end, all tire would be worn the same when they got replaced and the second just before they got replaced as the first rotation turned out to be a little premature. No unusual wear patterns and the car drives straight and true.
That’s a good point that alignment “drifts” with time/wear.
On my prior vehicle, nearby Firestone shop ran a “lifetime” promotion shortly after I bought it, so I jumped on and car was getting the alignment checks every spring and fall.
What I found is that the original alignment was just perfectly in the middle of the speced ranges, then it was a change in next 6 and 12 months, where they made some small adjustment after a year, and that’s pretty much how it stayed with no adjustments for something like 3 or 4 years, then some small adjustment was done again.
Once again, for me it was one-time “lifetime” investment, so I did not hesitate to show up there twice a year.
On other cars, I tend to do it once in 2-3 years, just to be on the safe side.
It looks like Firestone learned from their mistake, as that promotion is nowhere to be found now 
I did that once, but that was because we had bought a new Honda Civic in 93 and the dealer could not get it to hold an alignment (under warranty). It wore out two sets of tires on the front in the first 20k miles (10k each set).
A Firestone dealer had an alignment tech that had a reputation for doing it right, and he kept his rack in top condition. He even closed the doors after putting the car on the rack because any breeze would move the sensitive instruments hanging from the hubs. BTW, I was on a road trip at the time when the second set of tires became unsafe. I was visiting some people and they put me onto this guy, swore I would not be disappointed. They were right.
I never took it back because it never needed an alignment again. No more tire problems.
I disagree with that to a degree. I do my own alignments in my garage and our cars don’t change at all between checks. Last 2 times I put tires on my truck, they checked but it was still within spec at 110K miles. I’ve had to adjust the torsion bars to set ride height because they sagged but my coil springs never have.
Neither my wife nor I curb our cars.
But it doesn’t hurt to check to see that things are still in place and ruining a $1000 set of tires to save $80 or so on an alignment is dumb.