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[Lowcruzr]

Had mine done yesterday at the dealer for $129, no active steer, no awd.

[Park2670]

For New York I think it seems like a fair price, at the dealership I work at the price is 149.

Only thing I cant figure out is how the hell do you have Active Steering and an XI??! Its not possible Sir?

[lib]

Originally Posted by PKumarM3

you guys drive BMWs! why do you cheap out on something as important as an alignment?

Paying extra for a good alignment is fine.
Paying $370 for one is not.

There is a difference between being cheap and not letting someone rip you off.

There's a good shop out here that a lot of people take their cars to for custom suspension work, etc. Their basic alignment is ~$110 for 4 wheel camber & toe. ~$130 for all adjustments (caster, etc). ~$150 if you have aftermarket adjustable control arms, tension rods, etc.

This place is one of the more expensive (non-dealership) ones around here for an alignment and it's still only 1/3 of what the dealership is trying to charge the OP.

[Park2670]

Originally Posted by Takashi

It could well be active headlights.

which wouldnt have anything to do with the wheel alignment.

[gqmd]

If you are in New Jersey, JMK in Springfield charges about half of that price...

And they shouldn't charge u a storage fee at Tenafly since u did get tires from them.

[therealm3]

great post.

Originally Posted by DSXMachina

Driv3r, I respectfully disagree. Those people who cut out proper repairs/maintenance on cars often end up spending more and fouling the environment longer. You simply cannot wish repairs away, and neglected cars get worse as time goes by. Repairs are not a luxury, they are a neccessity. Should people be doing 70mph on the highway in a car whose owner thinks spending money to keep two tons of speeding metal intact is a "luxury"?

I own a Hunter Alignment machine, it cost me $48,000 (US). It has all the bells, whistles, lasers and videos you could hope for. If I put a hack on the machine you will get a lousy alignment. If I put a skilled conscientious tech on it you will get a good alignment. It's the human who does all the work.
What is an alignment? I GUARANTEE (!) that the shop which is doing the '$100 alignment' is NOT doing an alignment. He is doing what we jokingly refer to as a 'toe and go' and you fall for it because you don't know any better.
A proper alignment on a E9X CANNOT be done for under $200, and $300 is not out of line at a dealership if it is done properly.
Weight must be placed in the car; 150 lbs in each front seat, 150 in the back seat, and 50 lbs in the trunk. Caster and camber must be checked and rear toe and thrust angle must be checked and adjusted. Then the stability control computer has to be reset for a new steering "Zero". They are NOT doing that for a $100. Don't take my word for it, ask them to put in writing exactly what they did to "align" your car.
If you went out to eat and asked for a steak dinner and they brought you bread and water, would you pay for a steak dinner? That's what you are doing when you get the $100 alignment.

[KkSc]

$370 is totally rip off!

[gqmd]

Regardless of what the tire dealer who posted above thinks, anyone who charges $370 shud be boycotted...this is good info for me...i will never recommend anyone to Tenafly.

[EvasiveMotorsports]

if you were in so cal, we'd do it for $130.

[AKbmw]

i just got an alignment for 60 bucks...

[Sneeze]

Originally Posted by AKbmw

i just got an alignment for 60 bucks...

Where?

[Rogue_Marine]

I got an alignment done at my local dealership last Friday and it cost me $151.00 tax included.

[lauer87]

I'm getting my new tires mounted and balanced, plus a four wheel alignment for 199+tax from my local BMW dealer on Thursday.

[tres]

Originally Posted by DSXMachina

Driv3r, I respectfully disagree. Those people who cut out proper repairs/maintenance on cars often end up spending more and fouling the environment longer. You simply cannot wish repairs away, and neglected cars get worse as time goes by. Repairs are not a luxury, they are a neccessity. Should people be doing 70mph on the highway in a car whose owner thinks spending money to keep two tons of speeding metal intact is a "luxury"?

I own a Hunter Alignment machine, it cost me $48,000 (US). It has all the bells, whistles, lasers and videos you could hope for. If I put a hack on the machine you will get a lousy alignment. If I put a skilled conscientious tech on it you will get a good alignment. It's the human who does all the work.
What is an alignment? I GUARANTEE (!) that the shop which is doing the '$100 alignment' is NOT doing an alignment. He is doing what we jokingly refer to as a 'toe and go' and you fall for it because you don't know any better.
A proper alignment on a E9X CANNOT be done for under $200, and $300 is not out of line at a dealership if it is done properly.
Weight must be placed in the car; 150 lbs in each front seat, 150 in the back seat, and 50 lbs in the trunk. Caster and camber must be checked and rear toe and thrust angle must be checked and adjusted. Then the stability control computer has to be reset for a new steering "Zero". They are NOT doing that for a $100. Don't take my word for it, ask them to put in writing exactly what they did to "align" your car.
If you went out to eat and asked for a steak dinner and they brought you bread and water, would you pay for a steak dinner? That's what you are doing when you get the $100 alignment.

thats a great point most shops wont do a very good job unless you tell them exactly what to do and make sure they do it right i did this at a pep boys and the techs were pissed off but they had to do it

[Wheel'$ForLe$$]

holy cow that is super over priced!! I wish you were in Florida so I can send you to a couple of my local guys, keep shoppin!

[bhb7654321]

I love BMW Service

[///McRae]

I put my car into the dealership yesterday for a problem with the DTC/Stability Control warning light. They called me today and said that they had fixed that, but that the steering wheel was crooked and I needed alignment and balancing (which I just had done 3 months ago). The other work is covered under warranty, so I asked how much it would sting me. They told me $274, plus tax. I said ok. I got off the phone and realized what I had just done. I called the right back, and said not to do the alignment and balancing b/c it was waaay to expensive. My advisor said, oh I just found a coupon, we can do it all for $197, including tax. So, if I hadn't called back, well you know the rest..............

Every time I put my car in for warranty work, they find something that they can actually charge me for.

[BMW335machine]

DSXMachina had the best and informative post out of all of you. LOL

Originally Posted by EvasiveMotorsports

if you were in so cal, we'd do it for $130.

EvasiveMotorsports do you do everything that DSXMachina described including putting the weight into the car???

[bimmer_335]

no I wont trust sears with my car... remember prices vary from dealer to dealer... you might want to checkout prices from other dealers and let your SA know about it being too high. As a rule of thumb... I always ask for a discount... and I usually get it. Just dont be as a$$... lol... heck I was at my dentist the other day (wisdom tooth extraction) and even they give me a discount (insurance was shitty)... just be confident and ask for it. I'm not cheap... but i work hard for my monies... I want to spend it wisely.

[persian54]

I can get alignment done for about 60-75 for the 335i, and yes, they do place weights, and yes they do give me a diagram of before and after and yes I have been going here for years and yes I have sent them many happy customers and yes their alignment is good. Why? Because after I had my friends e92 done there, we took it to BMW to have it checked (had a friend who was a tech there) and he said the alignment was done just fine, as if we had paid the dealer our $200+.

it all depends on who you know.
if you go to some random place and pay $50, or $100 or whatever, it might suck... but if you know them, it's different.

but i know nothing about active steering :P lol

[choicez]

Originally Posted by persian54

I can get alignment done for about 60-75 for the 335i, and yes, they do place weights, and yes they do give me a diagram of before and after and yes I have been going here for years and yes I have sent them many happy customers and yes their alignment is good. Why? Because after I had my friends e92 done there, we took it to BMW to have it checked (had a friend who was a tech there) and he said the alignment was done just fine, as if we had paid the dealer our $200+.

it all depends on who you know.
if you go to some random place and pay $50, or $100 or whatever, it might suck... but if you know them, it's different.

but i know nothing about active steering :P lol

Where?

[itsbrokeagain]

Originally Posted by PKumarM3

you guys drive BMWs! why do you cheap out on something as important as an alignment?

- tire wear
- precision of handling (its a BMW not a jeep)
- wheel bearings will be affected by a shit alignment
- endlinks can be affected
- control arms
- RTABs can be affected
- Rear Control Arms

Pretty much you pay for what you get. You could go to sears and have some putz do your alignment, or you can go to a specialist, like a BMW Indy shop, that knows what they are doing, asks you what specs you want, what you do with your car, and then suggest a proper alignment spec.

Now finding the indy shop is key. There are a plethora of information.

Its so sad to see people who spent more than 30K on a car try to find bargains on such important services needed for this car.

The shop that I do my installs out of charges $150 for alignments. They know their BMWs pretty well and we've had several E9X Ms in the shop for alignments as well.