S-H-O-C-K-E-R-O-O-N-E-Y - Wheel Alignment Cost & Time Taken!

[tigerbalm]

Interestingly, one my local dealers advertises the Taycan alignment as both inexpensive ($60 - $150) and short to perform (25-60 minutes).

https://www.parkplace.com/2021-porsche-taycan-alignment.htm

That has very much the feeling of $CAR_TITLE dash $SERVICE

Sponsored

 

[Boss Hogg]

I'm curious to know if anyone has had their wheels realigned following a routine service / inspection and at what cost?

My car is in the shop today for it's first 2 year service (17.7K miles).

I've been advised that the wheels need alignment but I have not noticed anything untoward to suggest that they were misaligned or indeed has there been any adverse tread wear.

The cost for re-alignment is £1,471.68 (in addition to the service cost) - yes you read that right, £1,471.68!!!

Naturally I've challenged this but apparently to perform this task on a Taycan requires 7 hrs (yes, 7 hrs) of labour time due to the amount of calibration required which apparently requires the cameras to be recalibrated and that bumpers etc have to be removed to perform the work.

This is the first time of any Porsche (or any car) that I've owned that has had to have alignment (and we have plenty of potholes in Scotland) work performed.

This high cost and time required is apparently unique to the Taycan and I'm not sure if its made worse if you have Rear Axle Steering. Wheel alignment in general for a regular car for all 4 wheels would be £40 a corner I would reckon.

Call me a cynic but this feels a little like Porsche clawing back the costs of the various free recall campaigns.

In summary, beware of the potential for excruciating pricing for Taycan specific works!

wow, did they show a report justifying why the alignment was needed? Or was the car not driving correctly, odd/excessive tyre ware?

 

[Speuk]

I'd get the alignment checked at a good tyre centre with Hunter Hawkeye equipment. My local tyre centre does the check for free and provides a print out of all the data and £99 to adjust all corners on my X5
It would be hilarious if the Hunter print out was all green

 

[Midlifecrisis]

The car is a prime example of a 'design flaw'.

Well it is a design flaw from our perspective... but from the dealers' perspective it is inspired

 

[W1NGE]

There is a lot of difference between an alignment which typically only adjusts the toe settings and a full suspension setup which adjusts toe, camber, caster, bump steer ride height etc. Most tyre shops only adjust toe even if they detect that any other measurements are out of spec. This is because adjusting the other settings is often quite difficult and time consuming or even impossible.

For example, changing camber on my Lotus Elise involves inserting or removing shims between the upright and wishbone. It takes me about an hour to check all measurement on the Elise. If everything needs adjustment, then it can take a whole day to make then necessary changes.

I can’t quite understand how Porsche can give a single quote for this work as the duration is very variable. I guess they should quote for the initial measurement and then tell you the hourly rates for any necessary adjustments.

Are you sure you actually need a full suspension check? If so, then they should do the measurement first, phone you up to discuss and then let you decide what to do.

They provided the measurements as part of the service today and red flagged wheel alignment. No detail other than that. I can choose not to do the works but as I’ve already negotiated a 50% discount (I’m not done yet) I’m minded to proceed with the work. I’ll then seek compensation from Porsche UK for the misrepresentation in their October wheel alignment offer.

 

[W1NGE]

I'd get the alignment checked at a good tyre centre with Hunter Hawkeye equipment. My local tyre centre does the check for free and provides a print out of all the data and £99 to adjust all corners on my X5
It would be hilarious if the Hunter print out was all green

X5 is not a Taycan alas. Porsche has all the tech so they’re not making this up. The huge cost is due to the dismantling of the front of the car and the reassembly.

 

[Foxy]

Be interested to know what someone like F1eng has to say, but if tyre wear is consistent and the car feels no different then why bother? It seems an awful lot of geo work a daily driver.

 

[jetbox]

They provided the measurements as part of the service today and red flagged wheel alignment. No detail other than that. I can choose not to do the works but as I’ve already negotiated a 50% discount (I’m not done yet) I’m minded to proceed with the work. I’ll then seek compensation from Porsche UK for the misrepresentation in their October wheel alignment offer.

Interested in what the alignment figures show and what it drives like and tyre wear?

 

[simcity]

Thanks for that update. Where I take my cars to be done, the team measure and check everything before on a Hunter Hawkeye computerised rig - present me a full read-out of the state of all wheels - then allow you to make a choice to proceed or not. No proceed, no charge.

That will be the route I will continue to go down with my Taycan. When the bloody thing finally arrives of course.

I'd get the alignment checked at a good tyre centre with Hunter Hawkeye equipment. My local tyre centre does the check for free and provides a print out of all the data and £99 to adjust all corners on my X5
It would be hilarious if the Hunter print out was all green

I think we’re singing from the same song sheet

 

[W1NGE]

wow, did they show a report justifying why the alignment was needed? Or was the car not driving correctly, odd/excessive tyre ware?

Tyre wear is pretty much all even and flagged as a green item. Original tyres from new. No pulling and the car could not be running sweeter. A total surprise when this was flagged. A report has been produced.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

Tyre wear is pretty much all even and flagged as a green item. Original tyres from new. No pulling and the car could not be running sweeter. A total surprise when this was flagged. A report has been produced.

If the tyre wear is normal it makes me wonder what problems this could possibly cause. After 18k miles on the original tyres, how can the alignment be a problem if they are wearing evenly? Unless it has only just become misaligned I don't really see why you wouldn't be having an odd wear pattern on the tyres
Not sure I would get it done - especially as you have another car on the way

 

[jetbox]

Yep, I don’t think I would bother….

 

[RAHRCR]

Tyre wear is pretty much all even and flagged as a green item. Original tyres from new. No pulling and the car could not be running sweeter. A total surprise when this was flagged. A report has been produced.

I think your observations in this thread are spot on. Porsche engineers the ability to take advantage of its customers through service. This is a really bad practice. It didnt start with the Taycan but it will become MUCH more glaring in the world of EVs. They need to accept the fact that the huge profit that they make on the sale is it. After that, they will need to settle for normal levels of post-sales gross margin/profitability. My buying decisions, after Taycan, will take this into account.

 

[W1NGE]

Interested in what the alignment figures show and what it drives like and tyre wear?

Original tyres from new - now 17.7K miles on them. Drives perfectly as if it were new.

 

[TDinDC]

Original tyres from new - now 17.7K miles on them. Drives perfectly as if it were new.

That looks damned near perfect. Unless you feel something off and/or the hit on the bad pothole was very, very recent, I would wonder whether they just made an error in measuring the alignment specs. Human error?