Wheel alignments for most vehicles are not often needed, but tire shops, especially shops that specialize in tire sales, will try to tell you that you must have it done when getting new tires.
Unless you are driving on bumpy roads, taking the vehicle off road, have hit some serious pot holes, you probably do not need a wheel alignment. It is a $100 to $200 gravy train for tire shops.
They will give you a computer read-out showing measurements being off by 100ths of and inch and tell you if it is not fixed it will effect your anti-lock brakes, traction control, anything else, and of course you will get it done. You are hauling grandkids in that car!
When driving your car down a straight stretch of road, let go of the steering wheel. Does it track straight? You don’t need an alignment. If it wants to pull to one side you do. Do your tires have unusually wear patterns on the inside or outside? You probably need an alignment. Most of the time you don’t need one but you will get one because cars are soo complex now that you can’t tell if it needs to be done or not.
The machine print out they give you showing minor fractions off can be changed just by jacking up the car again and doing the measurement again. And the adjustment needed is so small that they don’t really do anything.
Unless your car is 20 years old and driven on unpaved roads, this is just gravy for the tire shop. If you get under your car and take pictures, then go get new tires where they insist that you need an alignment, get back under the car after the job is done. You should see some tool marks on the nuts to the adjustment rods. Most of the time you will see no evidence of anything having been done at all. Because most people will not check, and it is just $100 bucks, you feel better having it done and it is gravy for the shop. They didn’t really do anything.
Ball joints do not go out on your 3 year, 5 yr, 10yr old car either. Find a shop you trust. That discount tire shop that you got a good deal on tires from, made up the difference by charging you for an alignment.
I dismiss those “recommendations.” I grew up working on cars and this stuff is typically nonsense. I was told I’d need a new battery soon and shown the mechanic my battery was 3 months old. I was told my power steering pump was going when my car didn’t have power steering. I’ve gotten estimates for crazy amounts that spout nonsense (that a shop would need to remove the front bumper to replace a radiator), and I’ve heard worse from women discussing shop repairs, like a girlfriend whose electrical problems would need thousands in diagnostics when she went in with a blown fuse.
I’ve occasionally felt a bit lazy and run to a mechanic to see if someone can quickly repair something simple - I always end up leaving to DIY.
We’ve been going to a local shop for 17 or 18 years now dealing with the same service manager. Every time it goes in for an oil change, they give the vehicle a once-over. Sometimes there’s nothing else needed, sometimes there’s something we’ll want to keep an eye on, sometimes repair/replacement is recommended. In all those years and all the vehicles we’ve owned, we’ve never had a reason not to trust them.
For example, once before a road trip, I took my van in for an oil change and told them we were heading out of town to be sure everything was fine. And everything was fine. Last month’s oil change brought the news that I should really replace my tires before the roads get winter-nasty, so sometime in the next few weeks, they’ll replace my tires.
The manager told us we’re one of their longest-time customers and I’m pretty sure he knows it’s because we trust him. And I appreciate that when I ask him questions about recommendations or about the funny noise I hear, he’ll give me a straighforward answer - none of this “Don’t worry your head, little lady” or “Have your husband call me” - I don’t know a whole lot about cars, but having listened to Car Talk for many years, I’m not totally stupid either.
So for me, the recommendations are welcome but never high-pressure. And they’re why my van hit 235K miles and why my current car is well on the way to surpassing that. I my car guy.
Local reputation, for anybody who’s been in business at least a few years, can mean a lot. Especially in small towns – or in small communities otherwise, as for a particular make of car. When I needed to find a new mechanic (previous one retired), I asked the one who was retiring; and I also asked a lot of friends and neighbors. I got a couple of solid multiple recommends, and chose the closer one. Several years’ experience with them later, they’re a good choice.
I just dropped off/picked up my car yesterday, it had a slow leak on one tire and I had them do the oil change. I’m kicking myself for not having them rotate the tires while the thing was up in the air and I’d have agreed to the upsell if they asked and the cost was reasonable (like ~$25).
I had the same thing happen at a quick oil change place. Their technician claimed my brake pads were at like 20% and that I should replace them. I declined having them do it, because I needed new tires soon anyway, so I figured I’d have the tire shop do the brakes as well. A few weeks later I went to Les Schwab (a chain of tire stores on the West Coast) and asked for a new set of tires and brake pads. A little while later their technician came out and was like “Who told you you need brake pads? Your brakes are fine. They all have over 50% remaining.” The fact that their guy was actually honest and informed me I didn’t really need brakes, rather than just changing them because I asked them to pretty much secured my loyalty to Les Schwab.
Depends on the jurisdiction. In some big city, yeah, you might wait 3 hours for a cop to be available to stop by. In a more rural place where the police take common sense and community building more as part of their jobs, you might well get what @kayaker said.
my car guy.