[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by BMR.WRLD

Love to see it


Do you notice a difference?

Yes the car feels a bit more nimble. There's also a distinct different in the feel of the steering wheel when in the Sport setting. Doesn't feel as heavy as before is best I can describe it.

*Does anyone have the address to BMW NA so I can request reimbursement for the $172 I paid considering it was out of alignment from the get go & the first dealer I took it to refused to look at it within the 2k mi warranty period?

[MineralGreyMetallic]

I have to chime in again.

My car feels amazing now. Not just accelerating in a straight line, but accelerating while turning.

Steering is way more intuitive and predictable now.

The car felt like it was fighting itself before, and I just assumed that was a side effect of having 21s with tiny sidewalls in the rear.

[BMR.WRLD]

Love to hear it, it's striking how a few 'minor' adjustments transforms the car. I feel it's easy to take it for granted that BMW did their job to begin with.

[Bret]

Originally Posted by JABCAT

*If you can get the dealer to do it.
I took mine in at 1,800 mi & the Service Advisors argued with me it wasn't covered. Then I pulled up the M2 warranty booklet & showed them, they still argued & said they'd never heard of alignment being covered. Finally, they said if I wanted it covered, they would have to have a tech diagnose the alignment issue, submit it for warranty approval, and wait for BMW to approve it. Said they would need my car for at least 4 days & no loaner was available. BUT if I wanted to pay $225, they could do the alignment that day. BMW of South Austin btw.

I would love to have seen the look on his face when you showed it to him. Unfortunately, some people are too proud to admit when they are wrong in spite of overwhelming evidence. So, he created a bunch of hurdles for you to jump over when in reality all they had to do was put it on the alignment rack to see if it was in alignment or not. When it wasn't, they would have done the work and collected their $ from BMW. Instead, they took an opportunity to create customer loyalty into losing a customer forever.

Originally Posted by JABCAT

Got mine done when it went in for an oil change on Wednesday. And my steering wheel is straight now too

I hate it when I pay for an alignment and then the steering wheel is crooked afterward. I've had it happen several times, so I now tell them that if it isn't strait after the alignment, I'll be back to have it realigned.

[buckybadger]

I got my car aligned from an expert in my area. I did put on ohlins R&T suspension. It transformed the car to the next level in terms of driving dynamics, plus proper alignment made a huge difference.

The bmw dealerships do an average job in my opinion and experience. Find a good independent shop who works on performance cars. Pricing wise they might be similar but their alignment will be generally much better.

[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by Bret

I would love to have seen the look on his face when you showed it to him. Unfortunately, some people are too proud to admit when they are wrong in spite of overwhelming evidence. So, he created a bunch of hurdles for you to jump over when in reality all they had to do was put it on the alignment rack to see if it was in alignment or not. When it wasn't, they would have done the work and collected their $ from BMW. Instead, they took an opportunity to create customer loyalty into losing a customer forever.


I hate it when I pay for an alignment and then the steering wheel is crooked afterward. I've had it happen several times, so I now tell them that if it isn't strait after the alignment, I'll be back to have it realigned.

$100%. The $225 from me was more important than clearly following the warranty documents & earning a customer. I live in Austin 8 months out of the year & will take my car (and my wife's X3MC) to BMW of Dallas for anything it needs. Will not use BMW of South Austin, nor will I buy a vehicle from them. Too many businesses are short-sighted.

[DarkNight707]

I got mine checked over the weekend… not a surprise here.

The steering wheel is still off center (to the left)… left them a message and waiting to hear back from them.

[RobM2]

For all of you with funky alignments, do you all have the MPHAS?

[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by rlove

For all of you with funky alignments, do you all have the MPHAS?

Standard suspension on mine.

[D.Yooras]

Originally Posted by rlove

For all of you with funky alignments, do you all have the MPHAS?

From experience thus far, G87 vehicles seem to have alignments that are out of spec from the factory both with and without the MPHAS kit. Most of the time, the MPHAS kit cars are more out of specification than non-MPHAS but, for the most part, they are all out to some extent.

In all fairness, these cars are being produced by a newer production facility and this is (if I recall correctly) the first M car they are producing so I'd expect to see some aspects of production that are not ideal. However, getting an alignment after break-in is generally a good idea, especially on performance cars and even more so true on M cars which are very sensitive to minor changes in alignment.

One thing to consider is that alignments done at the factory are done while the car is moving down an assembly line (in most cases) and they are not aligned to the specifications you see on a service alignment sheet. The reason for this is that car is going to settle, the suspension will sag a bit, and the bushings will take a set once the car has sat at 1G (under it's own weight) for a reasonable period of time.

For example, Audi (until recently) wouldn't not pay for warranty alignments until 1,200 miles or higher. That has changed as of recently, but they actually have a different specification sheet for vehicles under the 1,200mi mark.

[DarkNight707]

Originally Posted by JABCAT

Standard suspension on mine.

Same here.

[LAGWAGN]

Another vote for ‘get an alignment’. Maybe not as bad as some others, but still pretty far out of spec at 3,500 miles. On stock suspension.