Alignment question

Steve wrote:
>
> Firestone has a Lifetime alignment. 159.99; currently on sale at 139.99 in
> the west coast.
>
> 6000 miles or 6 months is a good schedule to keep the tire warranty good.

Are you suggesting an alignment ever 6000 miles????

I have only had one of my vehicles aligned in 13 years and
hundreds of thousands of miles of combined driving. And the
last one I had aligned didn't really need it. But then I go
to an alignment shop I trust. He doesn't have the latest
equipment, but he knows how to use it. Plus, the technician
actually looks over the tires and drives the car before he
puts in on the alignment machine. Two of the last three
times I stopped by for an alignment I was told I didn't need
one and didn't get charged for one. The other time they
decided to put the car on the machine but after the
alignment was done, I was told I really did not need an
alignment (the car was within mfg specs before, but the tech
tweaked it). They did make a slight toe-in adjustment and
charged me for an alignment. When I went in, I had insisted
there was a problem (a slight pull). The technician told me
it was a broken belt in the tire that was causing the pull,
but agreed it was probably worth checking a car with over
30K miles. I was happy for the piece of mind. On the other
hand, I drove one Expedition to 147,000 miles without ever
having the front end checked. In that time I replaced tires
twice - the third set of tires on the car looked like new
when I traded the vehicle. The first and second sets still
had plenty of tread left and were "square" when they were
replaced, but they had become hard to keep balanced. In both
cases they were replaced after having been driven between
50k and 60k miles.

I don't think either of my parents has had a car aligned in
the last 15 years, and they don't have tire wear problems.
Likewise for my sister. Her '97 Civic has never been
aligned, and the tire wear just fine.

I cannot imagine going in for an alignment every 6,000
miles...

Ed