Replacing four tires on my car. Shop wants me to do an alignment. The internet says that an alignment is not mandatory but highly recommended for safety and tire life but the internet is just other shops for the most part.
We all know that Big Auto Repair love to sell you stuff you don’t need. Are they doing that here? Or do they have a point?
A factual answer depends on the condition of your car. And the year, make, model, trim level, mileage, and accident history. And which tires are coming off and going on. All info we don’t have.
A more general answer is that if your car is well-aligned now, there’s no great need. If your car is misaligned now, there is a need and the cost of alignment will be returned to you in improved tire mileage, assuming you don’t otherwise abuse the tires.
“Safety” seems a BS reason to me. If your car is so far out of alignment that it’s a safety issue then you’d know it. Tire wear is definitely an issue. You could cut the life of your new tires in half or worse if the car is out of alignment, which is definitely a waste of money.
The biggest thing to look at is the wear pattern on the old tires. If they are evenly worn then you probably don’t need an alignment. If the tires are worn on one edge and not the other then you definitely need an alignment. If the tires are worn on both edges then they might have been under-inflated or you might have an alignment or suspension problem.
What do the existing tires look like?
Tough to answer because I don’t know the age of your vehicle or the state of its suspension.
I’ll put it this way: You don’t necessarily need an alignment when you get new tires, BUT, if you do need an alignment, not getting one will cause accelerated wear on your new tires.
Anecdote: For a while the alignment in my car has been very slightly off – most drivers wouldn’t even notice, but I expect a car to travel in a perfectly straight line with no hands on the wheel, with no preference for one side or the other. I’ve been putting off getting an alignment because the issue is so subtle. And then I got new tires, and the problem is now definitely more noticeable. Doing some Googling, it seems that getting an alignment after replacing tires, while by no means always necessary, isn’t total BS either. Now that I have a decent mechanic again I’m planning on getting an alignment on my next visit.
With all due respect to the OP … it doesn’t strike me that the person asking this particular question is necessarily well-placed to perceive potentially subtle problems in tire wear.
[Though, of course, you’re right, IMHO]
Me? Get the alignment in this case.
Think of it as ‘insurance’ to help ensure the life of your four brand new tires. You could call a couple of other shops just to be sure their price is reasonable if you wanted to allay that concern.
You don’t need an alignment because you got new tires but if you need one and you just got new expensive tires you want to get one. The tire shop may have recommended it because of the tire wear they saw but I can’t vouch for them.
A while ago my wife called from a tire shop and said they said to do an alignment. I said blah, blah, blah upsale forget it but when she got home, she said that they said that because of the tire wear. I got an alignment.
As a now-legit Straight Dope member, please allow me to split a hair.
Let’s say two weeks ago, you/your spouse drove the car – with the old tires — to the grocery store. You made the sharp turn into a fairly decent parking space and – shit – you banged into the concrete parking stop block.
Ah, well. You back the car up three inches and call it good.
Your alignment might be screwed, but it’s so new that your old tires will exhibit no clear signs of the misalignment.
The new and expensive rubber, unfortunately, will be the beneficiaries of that parking mishap.
The alignment, in this case, and IMHO, is a “can’t hurt, might help” proposition.
Hair … split 
That’s a hair well split. An alignment isn’t that expensive.
I assume you need an alignment because I assume you aren’t throwing away 4 brand new tires mounted on your car prior to or proximately following an alignment so the alignment of the wheels will be an unknown state best resolved by just getting an alignment which doesn’t cost all that much and sometimes is built into the price of replacing tires all around.
In my experience, most tire replacement shops will at least check the alignment for free, then tell you whether you need one or not.
Just last weekend, I helped my adult son replace the tires on his car. After replacing the tires, they checked the alignment for free, and showed us a printout that indicated that two of the wheels were out of alignment. Having just paid for expensive Michelin tires, I advised him to get the alignment.
If I have the option (which this place did not offer), I will usually try to purchase a “lifetime alignment.” It is typically about twice the price of a one-time alignment, but covers you for the life of the vehicle.
In my experience, many tyre depots don’t have staff with the skills and expertise to do an alignment properly. Some cars have very little that can be adjusted anyway. The machine they use needs to be regularly calibrated and that is not always done.
The best places for wheel alignment are body shops that handle major repairs. They will have the skills and equipment that’s needed.
If you are driving your car and you let go of the steering wheel, does it want to drift to the right, left, or go straight? If it goes straight you do not need a wheel alignment.
Are your front tires wearing unevenly, inside or outside? If not you do not need a wheel alignment.
Does your steering wheel vibrate in your hands at high speeds? If not you do not need an alignment.
Wheel alignments are the latest scam at tire shops. If you put your car up on a lift and do not see tool marks on the adjustment rods they probably charged you for doing nothing. If you have a great deal of respect for your local shop, and they recommend an alignment, do it. If you are experiencing no other issues don’t.
Most alignment shops that I have dealt with will put a slight pull to the right. They do this in case the drive falls asleep at the wheel. The car will slowly drift onto the shoulder and hits the gravel or rumble strips waking the driver instead of drifting into the oncoming traffic.
I have also encountered were the treadwear warranty on the new tires is voided if an alignment isn’t done at the time of installation.
Is it that or is it the slight crowning of road surfaces in order to promote water runoff?
You’ve got some good advice. A lot of depends on what kind of car, and what you’re willing to put up with. A badly mis-aligned set of wheels will cause rapid wear of the tires, that much is true. Is this a “nice” car with expensive Z rated tires, or is this an econo-box that just needs to get you around town?
Just as important as an alignment is correct tire and wheel balancing. There is “balanced” and then there is balanced. Some shops won’t take the time to do it well. There’s a reason a guy who is only paid $14 an hour might just meet the bare minimum and call it “good enough”.
2021 Honda Insight. Approaching 50,000 miles. A couple minor things accident-wise that was mostly people hitting me while I was parked (i.e. shouldn’t cause issues with tires/alignment). I am replacing the tires that came on the car new a little more than two years ago save for one replacement I got along the way when I took a nail and it couldn’t be repaired.
I am getting the same Michelin OEM tires that are on the car now (save for the interloper which is a cheaper Firestone model though also one the Honda dealership uses for my car). I am paying extra for these tires because they are allegedly good for my Hybrid’s mileage. Also, I like them - I could get another 5-10,000 miles out of them but there’s a super good rebate and free install and interest-free promotion so may as well handle it now.
I have not had alignment issues to date, nor have I had an alignment done (I did have it checked as part of basic maintenance but that was about 25,000 miles and 14 months ago).
I am leaning towards getting it since it’s $100 and peace of mind (plus part of the deal is a year of interest-free payments so it adds only $9 or so to my monthly credit card bill) but I also don’t like wasting money!
I tend towards chaotic neutral.
My two cents. If you get your tires properly aligned and do nothing that could affect the alignment then you would not need to get an alignment.
But if you have hit a curb, run through a pot hole, taken a corner real sharp putting a load on your steering system, or any kind of driving that put any shock on your suspension them your alignment may be affected. The miss alignment may only be just a little but it will affect tire life. Having worked on other mechanical systems, I doubt many cars when their alignment is check the mechanic will find that it will not need some adjustment.
Me I would not invest money in new tires without getting my tires aligned.
Defects in alignment will be evident on the old tires if you know what to look for. It’s sort of a package deal, $100 bucks is a $100 bucks, nobody wants to waste or spend money unnecessarily. There are boat payments to be made though!
But given the cost of tires, labor, tax, “shop fees” and disposal cost and the rest of it I bet the $100 doesn’t amount to much. And this is all notional to some degree. A good conscientious shop might actually perform an alignment should it be necessary. Others might just “check the block” and call it good, the temptation is just too great, I suppose. It is difficult to find and retain good mechanics these days, I would be most concerned with the overall reputation of the shop, the personnel, diagnostic equipment, cleanliness. Like most things, you get what you pay for. If you’re lucky.