Yep. At my second appointment, they informed me that one of their technicians had a family emergency, and while being short staffed they accrued a large backlog. They said they'd need to keep the car for a few days. No loaners, but they'd pay for an Enterprise rental.
Determined to *not* leave my car sitting there for days while driving a rental, I decided to try a few shops in the Rochester area first. Dunn Tire, Munro, Austin Spencer, Titan Motorworks all said they couldn't do an alignment. Shamrock Service Center *can* do an alignment on a Model 3, but they were booked.
I opted for making a new appointment once the service center was caught up. That appointment is for June 23rd. So that entire trip to Rochester was *mostly* a waste... except... they mentioned that the CarStar in West Seneca recently became a Tesla certified body shop, so they would also be able to do alignments.
Made an appointment at CarStar... but they actually sub the alignments out to Continental Transmission next door. Continental *doesn't* work directly with consumers... they are B2B only, so you actually have to book an appointment with CarStar to walk you next door
. Neither of these guys are the "quick tire shop" type place though, so I was stranded in West Seneca without a car for **five hours**.
During that five hour wait I walked down the road to Wegmans for lunch and decided to stop into Goodyear just for kicks... they have a Hunter alignment machine that's less than a year old, and... ** THEY CAN PERFORM ALIGNMENTS ON THE MODEL 3 **. Wish I knew that beforehand.
Finally got the car back, aligned, balanced, rotated. The vibration is *still there*, but less pronounced and has indeed traveled to the back of the car with the feathered tires. I feel reasonably confident that although the feathering and inside wear was caused by misalignment, the vibration is now solely due to the feathered tires.
Just to make sure there's not some underlying suspension problem, I drove *back* to West Seneca two days later to take advantage of Goodyear's *Free Alignment Check* that they advertise on their website. The guys at the front desk didn't seem too keen on that offer. "If they find something off they're going to fix it" is what the man said. "I'm possibly looking at new tires anyway, and will probably end up purchasing your 3 year alignment subscription". In hindsight, I realize that was poor communication on my part.
Sure enough, they "realigned" the wheels and I was on the hook for $300. I didn't want to make enemies there, considering it's one of the only places I can get an alignment... so I bit the bullet and paid them. $200 to CarStar for an alignment on Monday, and $300 to Goodyear for an alignment subscription on Wednesday. Since they both provided me with before and after alignment sheets that showed "red" misalignments, either this vehicle doesn't stay aligned well or Goodyear was dishonest (probably the latter). What a drag.
The vibration is subtle enough that I can just accept it... however I don't really *want* to accept it. I'm leaning towards replacing the tires with Vredestein Quatrac Pros... Dunn Tire has them for $700 for 4... "out the door" price. It seems really foolish to replace the tires this early, but at 6 months old and 10k miles, I'd really like it to drive like it did when I first bought it.
Expensive lessons learned:
- Insist on an alignment from the "dealer" upon purchasing a new vehicle
- All of the auto shops in Western New York that can align the Model 3 are clustered together in West Seneca
- The Model 3 is *really* fun to drive
Attached are the alignment sheets.