My honda dealer continuously tells me that my '08 fit needs to have the wheels aligned every year or every 15K miles. I have no pull or other problems whatsoever, but they tell me that newer hondas are not equipped to keep themselves aligned without this yearly maintenance. I find that hard to believe and having grown up in a family that owned a body shop, this sounds somewhat unnecessary to me. thoughts/feedback appreciated.
Thanks!
I’ve never done, or heard, of this. Align any time front end work is done, check alignment with new tires.
The only exception would be if your car is pretty much living on mangled road surfaces and your car is taking a beating day in and day out.
You use the word “dealer” and this generally means when service issues are involved that you’re conversing with a service writer or service manager.'
NEVER, EVER, put any credence into anything these people tell you because very few of them have any mechanical experience or expertise and in an attempt to keep from looking stoopid to the customers at the counter they manage to dispense some downright hokey advice about automobiles.
It’s not a bad idea to have alignment checked about every 40-50k miles but what you were told is utter bunk.
I have a 2007 Honda Fit. Bought it 2 years ago with 56K miles on it, and I’ve put 30K on it myself since then.
To my knowledge it’s never had an alignment, and the dealer has never said anything to me about it needing one.
Good luck.
How does one tell if a dealership service writer is lying or making stuff up?
His lips are moving!
Not nesessary on modern cars unless there is a serious collison with a curb or pothole. Our 1994 Nissan has never had front end work done and never had an alignment, now at 130,000 miles!! The tires wear evenly, and we’ll sell the car next year with its original alignment intact.
The shop probably needs to pay for their new alignment machine and OP looks like a gullible prospect.
As stated, only if you drive on exceedingly rough terrain, do you need regular alignments.
It could be that the dealership is fishing for more business, or it could be that the roads where you live are so bad that checking the alignment once a year is a good idea. Most people only get the alignment checked when they buy new tires.
Make mine another vote for the dealer’s revenues needing an injection of your hard-earned cash. An alignment with every new set of tires, once every few years if you don’t drive much, or if the “feel” changes or you detect improper wear. Once a year is okay if you drive brutal roads (Boston anyone?), but it normally isn’t necessary, especially if your state does annual safety inspections anyway.
My honda dealer continuously tells me that my '08 fit needs to have the wheels aligned every year or every 15K miles. I have no pull or other problems whatsoever, but they tell me that newer hondas are not equipped to keep themselves aligned without this yearly maintenance.
Proper response:
“I see. I’ll be writing American Honda Corporate to tell them that you told me this, and to complain that they’re selling such flimsy pieces of junk under the misnomer “reliable.” I trust you’re OK with that? Oh, how do you spell your name again, to be sure I get it right in the letter?”
It’s sometimes fun to watch the little jerks squirm.
Did they say checked or aligned? Alignment can be checked and it might be recommended every year.
The roads where I live, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have it checked every year. My last oil change they told me I had 9/8 on front/rear tread for my tires, and it’s an AWD is FWD bias.
nope, definitely say alignment, not just to check it every year. thanks all for the feedback…only confirmed my suspicions!!!
There should not be a disagreement over semantics. Checking the alignment and adjusting it if necessary is one of those 6 of one, half dozen of the other things.
You will pay the same price no matter what.
What’s laughable is the part about Hondas not being equipped to keep themselves aligned. I’m in agreement with shadowfax about contacting corporate Honda and bringing this up if nothing more than for giggles. Odds are Honda will only reply with a generic nonsense statement devoid of any meaningful content.
It was about like when I contacted Ford Motor Company one time and asked what FOMOCO’s policy was in regards to transmission fluid changes. I simply asked if a pan drop and filter change should be part of a proper transmission service procedure and no way on Earth would Ford ever commit themselves to answering that simple little question. 
I get our vehicles aligned once a year. And they are almost always out of spec. I wait until the pot-holes have been filled in. I’ll also get an alignment when I get new tires or new shocks/struts or any other suspension work (although haven’t needed any in years).
As I understand it, doing an alignment is a standard part of the procedure for most suspension work.
If I don’t see a problem, then I’m not going to get an alignment, or even let someone check it. I live in a rural area where there are plenty of potholes, and I hit them at very high speed quite often, yet I have very few alignment problems.
My wife got talked into an alignment when buying new tires once, the sales person at Sears told her that the warrantee would be void if she didn’t. The original tires lasted 80k miles, the replacement, nearly identical, tires lasted 20k after the alignment.
My daughter got talked into an alignment at NTW when she bought new tires there. I knew she didn’t need one, so I took the before and after printouts from the alignment to a different NTW store and complained that the car didn’t feel right. They put it on their alignment rack to check, and guess what, their rack sown the alignment off and their corrections, based on the before and after printouts, put the alignment back to almost the same as it was originally.
Now, the vehicles that I have had actual alignment problems with have all been Honda’s. We have had two of them. The first was a 93 Civic, bought new. At 5k, the front tires were shot. It happened fast as the tires were doing ok until I drove the car and made a rather fast 180. When I finished the turn, I could here the tires squealing as I drove in a straight line. I took it straight to the dealer (25 miles away) but by the time I got there, the tires were gone.
The dealer aligned the front end and replaced the tires. All was well until I drove the car again at about 10k miles and I took a corner at speed. Back to the dealer for new tires and alignment. The dealer accused my wife of hitting potholes when I told hem that I hit potholes in my Dodge Colt at much higher speeds and with over 100k, I never knocked it out of alignment, then I asked him if Honda’s weren’t built as well as the Colt.
The Honda continued to have alignment issues until it got totaled a couple years later. We got a 97 Accord and it has had alignment issues as well, but not as bad as the Civic had.
the problem around here is that there are so many holes to fill they never get them all filled in. We had some road work done last summer and the work they done to the roads wasn’t even a half-assed job. In fact, it’d hafta work 3 times as hard to be that kinda job. When they do pave roads, it seems like they repave a road that doesn’t need repaving