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Topic: Is $75 for an alignment excessive, or am I out of the loop? (Read 903 times) previous topic - next topic

Is $75 for an alignment excessive, or am I out of the loop?

I went and got an alignment/balance/rotation at my local NTB today since I had bought my tires at NTBs several years ago (to get free balance/rotation). When I picked the car up, I was presented a bill for $75, luckily I had a $10 coupon. This seems somewhat ridiculously high. The place I normally go to is $39.99. The last alignment I had at NTB was $44.99 in 2000. I calculated the average inflation from then to now to be 2.69%...which gives an inflation adjusted price of ~$52.75. Wow. Time to mark another shop off of my list.

Double U, Tee,  Eff.

Is $75 for an alignment excessive, or am I out of the loop?

Reply #1 –
Location means a lot for prices, but its $70 by Meineke in Baltimore... All the job rates are from their computer, so even if it takes them 10 minutes its still the same price.

I try to use coupons too, but I hate the way most of the coupons say you must present the coupon up front before they give you the bill.  I feel like they have that rule to mark up the bill before they give it to you to make up for the coupon.

I purposely sometimes ignore the rule, and they scold me and give the discount anyway...


V6->V8HO 88 LS
5.0L V8 87 XR7

Is $75 for an alignment excessive, or am I out of the loop?

Reply #2 –
We used to charge $60 Canadian when I worked in a garage.  That included any shims (within reason).

For a front end only (basically just setting the toe) was $40.  This was mostly done just for do it yourselfers changing tie rods and other steering parts.
 

Is $75 for an alignment excessive, or am I out of the loop?

Reply #3 –
JustTires- 69.95 for cars, 79.95 for trucks, 99.95 for specialty vehicles (hard to reach tie rods, ESP, expensive cars, etc) and 119.95 for modified suspension (lowered, raised....makes sense as factory specs mean squat).

CarSense (new job)- 29-49.  It prolly has some other dealer type charge like 1 hour Diag charge to make it about even with JustTires.

Back home at a local shop- 39.95 for alignment of my Cougar.  Dunno why my dad didn't let me do it for free but whatev.  He paid for it.

Just depends on the area and where you go.  I bet its cheaper if I go more north even at the same company.  Has to do a lot with the area's labor rate.  I know back home is a hell of a lot cheaper than here in Philly.  But then again, a lot more snobs live here who care about every penny they spend even though they have a $70,000+ vehicle.  Overall though it's a much wealthier area....$830/month for a 1 bdrm apartment compared to $300/month back home for a comprible apartment.  It sucks living with only 1 roommate getting $8 an hour part time while attending school....but I could be much worse off.

So yeah...area has a lot to do with the price of an alignment....even though you can only adjust toe on foxes without pricey CC plates.