So driving down the shitty roads of Worcester, bam, I fail to notice a pothole and hit it and it sounds pretty harsh. Inspected the wheel afterwards and everything looked OK. That was about two weeks ago.

Last weekend I noticed that the wheel is a little off-center (to keep the car going straight). So I figured it needs an alignment.

Brought the car in to a dealer today and he refuses to do an alignment because he noticed a dent in the sidewall of my front right tire (which he claims is 1/4", I measured it to be 1-2mm). I also have some scrapings on the front right and rear right rims from scrubbing a curb. But all those scratches on the wheels didn't cause the off-center-wheel, which I think was caused by that rogue pothole.

I don't want to pay $79.95 to the dealer for an alignment. I don't know whether I can get any other dealer to do it under warranty.. is it worth a try to bring it to another dealer? Can the alignment be done cheaper at a non-dealer shop? What are some of the trustworthy alignment shops?

And also.. when I pick up the car after the oil change today, I'm probably going to have a printout of what the tech found (something like "dent in tire, can't do alignment under warranty").. is that kind of stuff kept in a database anywhere? Do the dealers have a common network where they keep service records for each car? Or is it all forgotten (or stays just with that dealer) after I leave the place?

 

Sorry to say it, but you whacked at pot hole and threw the alignment off... you get to pay to play, that's just life.

I know that where I am there is a shop that I trust to work on my car that does it for less than the dealer price you described... unfortunately I do not think one can say "all XXX shops" do a good job, as I have found that those generalizations do not hold.

I see from your profile that you are in NYC so the question is now if anyone else on the board has dealt with a reputable shop that does alignments for a decent price....

 

I'm actually in Worcester, MA,.. just updated the location in the profile to say that.

Just got the car back from the dealer. Oil changed, at least. Turns out whatever they write on the invoice stays at the dealer, so that's fine.