Do 4 new tires require an alignment

[PS JCS]

Can't see belts inside gash. Superficial wound.

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[Sofa King]

AI will steer you in the wrong direction over and over again because it is paranoid. If the car tracks straight and true, and the wear pattern is good, I would skip it. For what it's worth (and I'll probably get some flak for this) before my 2010 F-150 got totaled by a deer I had 230k miles on the clock and not once had an alignment the entire time I owned it (bought it at 46k miles). The truck was straight and true on a straight highway, and the tires always wore uniformly. I tried getting one done with the last tire change, but the shop couldn't fit me in so I just skipped it. Unless you have gnarly potholes or hit curbs you should be just fine.

I guess I'm just a bit too much of a perfectionist... and I know how bad the S650 comes from the factory. Plus if the car is less than 12 months old, it's covered under warranty!

 

[Neggytive]

If there is no indication of abnormal wear, feathering or cupping then you are probably OK just to slap 4 tires on it and send it

The truth is there is very little you can adjust on newer cars, as we say in the business "set the toe and let it go!"

There is no method for significant adjustment of the caster or camber on this car.

Even if there was, the chances of finding someone like the guy I work with, who is a former NASCAR crew chief and pushing 80 that will spend the time to get everything near perfect is near zero.

Most of the alignment techs are former lube techs that know how to set the toe and do little else.

You should see the sh*t we get in our shop after Town Fair Tire butchers the alignment or fails to identify and replace worn parts that make any alignment worthless.

Proper inflation and rotation are your friends

 

[Westphal]

I've been working on my cars (and my wife's cars) for over 30 years, starting with oil changes and tire rotations to nearly everything else. I had the alignment checked on my Camaro once, never checked on our minivans, and twice on my GTO (most recently due to a bunch of suspension work I did). I track tire wear with every tire rotation and never have an issue, so I don't mess with the alignment.

 

[LouG]

Even if there was, the chances of finding someone like the guy I work with, who is a former NASCAR crew chief and pushing 80 that will spend the time to get everything near perfect is near zero.

Proper inflation and rotation are your friends

I had an alignment guy like that. More 30 than 80, but absolutely OCD with his alignments.
Totally agree with checking pressures. I love the pressure display, it matches my gauge exactly, but I still manually check them every 2 weeks or so.

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