I guess I got spoiled having my own lift, tools, and shop equipment at my disposal for ten years. How do you people take your cars into shops all the time to have work done and not kill someone? Now that I don't have all the toys I need to do all the work I want to my car, I'm occasionally forced to take my car to a shop to have work done. In this case, I haven't gotten around to purchasing my own Hunter four post lift with a laser alignment machine (though I am saving up for one...) So, after putting new wheels, tires, and control arms on my bimmer I was naturally inclined to have it aligned. I called around to a few shops here in the area wanting to know three things:
-What type of machine do you have
-Do you provide before & after specs on a printout
-How much
Here are a few of the answers I got:
"It's a laser type machine, but with strings" "We can't give you a printout, but the guy that does it is really good" "$59.95 to $99.95, depending on what needs to be adjusted"
Jesus. After calling around for a while, I decided I should take some guesswork out of it and just go to the dealer. I called one morning after I got off work, and the dude said come right over, we'll get you out in about an hour. As I'm dropping it off, I asked again that I be provided a printout of measurements. "Of course, of course, Mr. qslim. Now have a seat in our fine leather chairs, have a latte and your car will be around shortly. So after about 2 hours, I find my way into the shop and see the tech just putting my car on the rack. Great. Time for more free coffee. After about three hours total, the service writer came in, said we were all done and my receipt was at the cashier. I asked where my printout was, and he said he would call the tech back up to the front with a copy. The tech showed up, reminded the writer that the printer had been missing for weeks, and he had neglected to save the job in memory. But, they should have a new printer in a few days. I'm a pretty laid back dude, so I just suggested that I come back in a few days when the printer is installed and have my car tossed back up on the lift for a quick reading. "Well, Mr Slim, we would have to charge you again for an alignment." "..."
Anyway, in the end I got it all figured out after finding the service manager. I don't really know what the point of this story is, but damn do I hate taking my car into strange places to have strange people touch it. Find a good tech and cling to him for dear life.