A8 springs

["William I. Knopf" <wknopf@agcia.org>]

I recently went from 16 to 17 inch wheels on the car, with
S0-2 tires.  The car seemed to be too high on these wheels,
so I bought four lowering springs (I think an inch or so)
from an Audi tuner.  Problem is, the dealership where I
bought the car last year is refusing to install "after-
market suspension mods."  I took the car by an independent
garage that works on other german high end imports, and
this guy tells me that since his alignment machine will
only align to OEM specs, that it will be a "costly trial
and error process" to get the car into alignment since the
lowering springs will modify the OEM specs, and in the
interim I could have very poor handling and increased
tire wear.  I have to assume he wasn't full of BS.     

Unfortunately, in this small market, not a whole lot of
other alternatives.  There's always Car-X I guess.
Any advice for me before I say to hell with it and go
back to the OEM 16" setup? 

Thanks in advance,

Bill Knopf
Des Moines