Town Fair Tire does an alignment every time you buy tires without even telling you.
Town Fair is a sleaze outfit. I went there ONCE looking for tires. Walked out when the salesman is trying to push another tire on me…When finally I asked “Do you have the tires I want or not?” - “Sorry sir we don’t have them in your size.” The tire they have in stock is ALWAYS the best tire they carry.
As for alignment…Here in New England…winter pot-holes do wonders on a vehicles alignment. I get an alignment done about once every spring…and it’s ALWAYS out of alignment due to the winter pot-holes.
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“winter pot-holes do wonders on a vehicles alignment. I get an alignment done about once every spring…and it’s ALWAYS out of alignment due to the winter pot-holes.”
Amen!
This year’s winter weather has already produced a bumper crop of potholes, and I hate to even think of what the roads are going to look like before the weather improves sufficiently for road crews to begin to patch the holes.
I am going to hold-off on wheel alignment until at least April, and perhaps I will have to wait a bit longer than that.
It recommended when only two tires are purchased the new ones go on the rear no matter which end of car is driven. All four replaced at one time is best.
I just paid $79 for an alignment on my Honda Element in Kansas City. That is about the most I have ever seen it cost.
I paid $80 for a 4-wheel alignment of my 1999 Honda Civic in Duluth, MN. They also installed a used steering knuckle assembly, because a crash had bent the original one.
Except for two alignments in the first year or so after I bought the car new in 1999, to cure a wandering problem, I have had no wheel alignments done. Tires have always worn evenly. I switch from summer to winter wheels each fall and spring, and rotate them front to back.
I think it’s opening up a can of worms to get an alignment done, unless there is evidence in the car’s handling or the tires’ wear that the alignment is off. For example, my Honda’s alignment was off when new. The first Honda dealer who aligned my new car did not fix the problem. The other Honda dealer did. Two out of three alignment jobs were done badly. The third one was done well and lasted more than 18 years.
But those worms don’t have to come out just to have it checked to see if everything is still OK.
Maybe, but how much does a check cost, compared to an alignment? Long-wearing, evenly wearing tires and absence of steering problems are evidence of no need for alignment. When does a check lead to unneeded, possibly harmful treatment? Kinda like in medicine.
The last check I got was included in the tire purchase. I’ve seen $49 advertised for a check, more if parts are needed.
I don’t subscribe to the “ignorance is bliss” philosophy of auto repair nor medicine. If you don’t trust your mechanic, or doctor, find another one you can trust.
I’d rather have the alignment tech show me the car’s out of spec and suggest why that is than destroy a new tire. I’d rather the doc tell me I have stage 1 one 2 cancer than 4. But that’s just me.
I do have two shops I trust with alignment/brake/suspension type work, and I have had them work on my Civic and my Town and Country, including an alignment on each.