This is not really on topic but it may help out with the cost of an
alignment, some times different auto repair shops/stores (i.e., Wards, Sears)
have an alignment agreement you can buy that lasts for about 3 or 4 or 5
years. I bought mine from M. Wards and paid $159.95 and its good for 5 years.
What this means is for a 5 year period I can bring in my car (only the one
written up in the alignment agreement) as many times as I want to get an
alignment and not have to pay any other costs. If you figure it costs you
$40.00 (or around this amount) each time you need an alignment and you get 2
alignment jobs done each year that figures out to a yearly cost of $80.00,
times that by 5 years and you have spent $400.00 dollars on alignments or you
could pay a like amount like I did and only end up spending $159.95. What
these places are hoping for/counting on is when you bring it in for an
alignment they will get other repair work to do and/or you won't keep your
car for the total time of the alignment agreement. What I do is each time I
rotate my tires, I get them rebalanced as I also have that same kind of an
agreement on my tires and then drive over to M. Wards and get an alignment.
If you make an appointment ahead of time for both of these, you will, most
times not end up spending all day waiting around for car work to be done.
Most of the times I can get both done in 2 1/2 hours or 3 at the most. I plan
it out ahead of time and take my wife to the grocery store and she does the
grocery shopping and I don't end up having to push a shopping cart around the
grocery store and I drop my kid off at the mall. So every body is happy, and
in the long run I've saved a few bucks that I can spend on my Sentra.
Ron
