It's amazing IMHO how much MYSTERY surrounds alignment!

Every MB car I've seen has adjustments for every angle and dimension. You absolutely do not need to bend anything unless there has been crash damage!

Tire balancing requires an IQ above mental retardation, but the alignment guy requires much more and needs to be experienced and properly trained. There is rarely anyone at the tire store that can and will do a good job.

Someone who knows what they're doing, can do a better job with a piece of string and a stick, than many of the alignment "experts" at the tire stores can accomplish with $50,000 worth of equipment.

Some time ago, I read a post by Steve Brotherton that outlined his approach to an alignment which included a test drive BEFORE putting the car on his alignment rack. When was the last time you had an alignment guy do this? Most likely never.

I have driven well over a million miles in various cars, most of those miles in an MB and I have NEVER had to go to an alignment shop. There have been a few times when I got into a situation where I was wearing tires, but it was because there was something wrong, like an idler arm, or I had my head where the sun doesn't shine and forgot to check wheel bearing tightness before using my "scribed line and tape measure" method. This is the method that has taken my 240D 533,000 miles without EVER finding itself on an alignment machine.

I truly believe that if the truth were known, you would find a high percentage of alignment jobs done, particularly in the tire stores, are slam bam jobs, where they just set the toe and charge the $50 or more. I think that Steve Brothertons savvy and attention to detail is the exception rather than the rule.

My suggestion? Either learn how to do it properly yourself, or seek out someone like Steve that knows what they're doing. When you find that shop, don't expect them to have the fanciest alignment pit in the state. They may very well have that, but just because they do have an expensive machine does not, in anyway, indicate that they know or care about what they are doing.

I fully expect that if you find someone like Steve and he is somehow without his alignment machine, he will be capable of doing a better job with a stick and a piece of hay twine than your local tire store can do with their $50,000 alignment pit.

Last point, the most brilliant front end alignment expert in the world cannot perform magic. If you have worn parts and you have your alignment set, you are washing your feet and then putting on dirty socks.

My $0.02,