Free alignment for life?

Just getting some tires mounted and balanced at a Tires Plus. They mentioned they have this lifetime alignment plan for $179.99. Pay it once and it's "free" for life (of the vehicle).

Has anyone heard of this or used it? Seems like a good deal. I'm assuming there is a catch?

Edit: sorry just re-read the title and it sounds misleading. You pay a one time fee of $179.99 and you get unlimited alignments for life after that at no additional cost.

 

FYI Subaru covers alignment as part of the factory warranty. Or at least that's what my brother found out when he had alignment issues with his Crosstrek that was barely over a year old. Dealer performed the alignment covered under warranty for him when he brought it up to them.

Honestly I wouldn't trust Tires Plus and such places like that for 4WD/AWD alignments personally. There has been a similar rumblings to not trust Firestone which offers a similar alignment deal on other car forums. For a simple FWD car like a Honda Civic/Accord or a Toyota Camry/Corolla I'd be ok with it honestly. But, how many alignments do you really need? Unless you hit something major like a nasty pothole, curb it badley or changed your suspension you shouldn't need an alignment for up to 100k miles.

 

I had this on my '04 WRX and my parents have had that on their vehicles - all from the St. Anthony location. When I had the WRX I loved it. I did use it 3-4 times and was glad I had gone that route cost-wise. The specific location has given some family members a bit of a tough time with their oil change packages over the past few months (X# of oil changes for $XX, and then not honoring it), so that is my only real deterrent for going and doing this with the FXT.

 

I wish my 01 RS was under warranty

But yeah, I have used Jeff in the past but they just mentioned it when I was here getting tires mounted. That's about the only thing I trust them for that I can't do myself.

 

Just reading around and it seems the catch is you can only get one per year? Did you get multiple in a year?

 

Honestly I don't remember exactly, but I want to say the last year I had the car I did it twice (at the seasonal wheel switches).

 

Confirmed when I was done and paying up there is no limit per year.

 

This is probably a dumb question, but is it "normal" for the alignment to just go "out" over time? I got my car aligned last year right before Powercruise because I had some horrendous tire wear (toe was way off). Got new to me tires and didn't wanna ruin them immediately.

Ran my snow tires this winter and when I swapped back over to summer I almost immediately noticed pulling again. Haven't gotten it checked or realigned yet but what gives? I can tell that there's a little funky tire wear going again, tho.

Edit - as far as I know, the tie rods determine the toe in/out, right? So unless you physically move the threads or something breaks/bends it shouldn't move, correct?

 

I had this at the Maplewood tires plus location on a different car like 5 years back. They said it was unlimited and i knew i was going do some work on the car so i got it. Long story short after about 3 alignments in 2 months i was getting excuses after excuses for them not wanting to do alignments on my car. Trying to argue the “lifetime alignment” plan it got just seemed like it got more and more hostile so i just never went back.

 

Honestly though, they would save everyone a head ache by doing that... themselves included.

 

I called around the TC this spring to different shops and couldn’t find one that offered or at least acknowledged they had a lifetime alignment shop.

I would treat the lifetime alignment with some discretion like 1-2 per year otherwise I’m sure the aforementioned disgruntled interactions would likely ensue. That said, I agree - they should be specific with their “limit.”

Could u imagine if a shop offered lifetime oil changes and how many premature oil changes would occur without a limit? Ha!