[twinship]

Took the car into Pacific BMW in Glendale last week and the SA immediately checked the tread on the front tires with a plastic gauge (looked like a credit card).

When we were sitting in his cube discussing my issues, he announced that the car "needed" an alignment, based on the tread depth difference between the middle and outside of the tires. And BTW, it wasn't covered under warranty. And BTW, it would cost $310.

WTF!?!?

As I was picking up my car, I saw the same SA going through the same tire-checking routine with another customer who'd just arrived in the service area.

I don't know if this is going on at other dealers, or even if other SAs at this dealer are doing it, but it looks to me like a nasty scheme to jack up dealership revenues. There may also be a commission or other incentive for the SAs to aggressively this service.

More than $300 for an alignment, that probably wasn't really needed anyway?

Hide your wallets!!!

Anyone else have a similar experience?

[itsbrokeagain]

if u were in NY, an alignment is 160 something at the dealer. We charge 150 at an outside shop.

[MalM3]

did you get a print of the tracking and alignment pre adjustment?

Normally there is a print of before and after.
So you can normally see where the adjustment was necessary

[E90SLAM]

Unless you have active steering, I would recommend you take a look at tirerack.com and see what shops around SoCal provide alignment. Or just ask LongTran, I'm sure he knows a place or two who can do a proper alignment job.

With AS, I don't really trust any other shops to mess with it.
Correct me if I'm wrong tho.

[twinship]

Originally Posted by E90SLAM

Unless you have active steering, I would recommend you take a look at tirerack.com and see what shops around SoCal provide alignment. Or just ask LongTran, I'm sure he knows a place or two who can do a proper alignment job.

With AS, I don't really trust any other shops to mess with it.
Correct me if I'm wrong tho.

I don't have active steering, so their quote seemed about double what it shoulda been

[iAerodynamic]

sorry what's active steering?

but isn't $300 for aligment wayy to ridiculous?

at my dealership its like 160? and for other independent shops are aroudn 70?

[yowhuddupb]

$310 for an alignment is steep but according to Pacific BMW's hourly rate of $155 per hour, it sounds about right. it takes roughly an hour to 2 hours to do alignment depending on how bad it is or what adjustments is needed to get the car back into specs. They should provide you with the before and after print-out of the alignments. I'm sure you can find a independent shop that can perform alignment on your car for cheaper.

[PaulBailey@ltbmw]

^It should never take 2 hours for alignment if you're stock.
Yes it's a total scam. Dealers are looking for money. At crevier they're offering people to fill their tires with Nitrogen. Which is great, but they're charging $99!

[spdy330]

I purchased my 06 on December 5th, 2009. Two weeks later I took it to another dealer to install my FA and iPod interface. While the SA was writing up my car another person brought her a printout suggesting I needed an alignment. Funny thing was that before I took delivery of my new pre-owned car the dealer put new tires and performed a 4-wheel alignment. My tires had only 300 miles on them when I took it to the oter dealer. I was really upset with this and let them know about it. They did not really care. They claimed that was what the machine said. I asked them how my tires can be wearing after 300 miles. I too do not like dealers. All I can say is be careful and don't fall in to their pure pressure to do something that you really don't need to do.


I feel for everyone that gets scamed like this.


EricO

[e90kiddo]

Most dealers ive gone to do charge about the same....I don't see necessarily as a scam because toe is one of the first things to go ......hitting even a small pothole or whatever .... even with just that would cause uneven wear.

[persian54]

Originally Posted by e90kiddo

Most dealers ive gone to do charge about the same....I don't see necessarily as a scam because toe is one of the first things to go ......hitting even a small pothole or whatever .... even with just that would cause uneven wear.

Yes and no.

Because if this was 100% true, we would need an alignment every week.

the alignment doesn't get shifted that easily or that quickly

[twinship]

I prolly should have mentioned this in the original post: My car has just 9K miles on it.

That's not to say that it couldn't need an alignment. But it does seem a bit unlikely...

[iAerodynamic]

Originally Posted by twinship

I prolly should have mentioned this in the original post: My car has just 9K miles on it.

That's not to say that it couldn't need an alignment. But it does seem a bit unlikely...

ok i assume youre stock 9k doesn't need alignment...

[E92-Lighting]

300 is way overpriced for an alignment

[HFe92]

$300 for an alignment . hahha thats crazy

[yowhuddupb]

Originally Posted by xPaulBaiLeyx

^It should never take 2 hours for alignment if you're stock.
Yes it's a total scam. Dealers are looking for money. At crevier they're offering people to fill their tires with Nitrogen. Which is great, but they're charging $99!

I'm not saying that is how long it will take to do an alignment, stock or not. The dealership has guidelines of estimated time for repairs and in this case BMWNA/the book quotes 2 hours for alignment x $155 per hour (different dealers have different rates). They aren't scaming you its just that's how the rate is. Unless you can have their fastest tech do it in an hour (which it probably wouldn't even take an hour) it would be $155. But thats how is calculated. Like I said, you would be better off going to a small independent alignment shops because their rates are usually half or less than half to do alignment.

[E90SLAM]

Regular alignment job shouldn't be more than 2 hours, many independent shop can do it in about an hour.

On the side note, since my car has Active steering, should I also just go to other independent shops? I'm just worried.

[boogiee90]

just got an alignment yesterday at Firestone. 69.99!!!!!!

[iAerodynamic]

Originally Posted by boogiee90

just got an alignment yesterday at Firestone. 69.99!!!!!!

shouldve gotten the lifetime one for like 160$?

[boogiee90]

btw I still don't get the whole NITROGEN filled tires nowadays because air we breathe is 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen.... so 100% nitrogen is suppose to be better?

[boogiee90]

Originally Posted by iAerodynamic

shouldve gotten the lifetime one for like 160$?

yeah. the guy was even offering me 140 lifetime, but i think there's some limitation though. Maybe 1 time in a year, i just didn't bother to ask, because it was raining like a b*tch yesterday... lots of clients.

[TommyK]

ya my dealer quoted me the same amount for alignment.

i got mine done by a well known shop in huntington beach for 140 or 160 and in 30min.