Another dealer doosie

[ejfluhr@austin.ibm.com (Fluhr)]

So I am down at Charles-Maund VW-Audi-Jaguar-Oldsmobile to pick up some
parts for my Coupe, and I decide to inquire about the cost of an alignment.
The service manager quotes me $116 - $145, 2.5 hours worth of labor.
I asked why, since Tire Kingdom in South Florida does the job in 20 minutes
(although I usually have to wait around in their queue), and charges me
$50 for a 3 year alignment policy.

She said the car needed 6 adjustments to it:  camber, caster, and toe for
each of the front wheels.  I responded that castor is non-adjustable on
these cars, only castor and toe are.  We then proceeded to get into a
debate over the design of the front suspension, in which she tried to
explain to me how the front shock tower is bolted to the car by four
bolts, and they can be notched so the castor can be adjusted.

I, in my Infinite Audi Wisdom (bequeathed by the quattro list), was
determined to make her see the light, and patiently explained that the
upper strut tower was not bolted to the frame of the car.  I gave up when
she started to explain how it IS bolted to the car, because otherwise
when the car hit a bump it would go "BAM!".  

BTW, this was the service manager.  :-o

Later,
Eric
'85 Coupe GT, must go "BAM!" since the upper strut tower is not adjustable

P.S. I made sure she wasn't talking about the suspension subframe, because
     this CAN be _slightly_ adjusted for small out-of-castor conditions.

---
Eric J. Fluhr                                Email:  ejfluhr@austin.ibm.com
630FP Logic/Circuit Design                   Phone:  (512) 838-7589
IBM Microelectronics Div.                    Austin, TX