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My long standing rule is that any car I buy that was shipped from overseas MUST ALWAYS have a wheel alignment performed as part of the PDI. In every single instance I had this done, some misalignment was always found, so my belief in this is not only based on my own personal experience but also echoed by those who also have suffered premature tire wear not to mention poorer overall FE than me.

Anyway, when we picked up my wife's 2010 Prius we ended-up not having the alignment done (end of day, etc) ... and I confess this is something that has been bugging me in part because I've had a chance to measure the car's tracking and gliding abilities and on the later I feel something is not quite right.

So with this in mind, I've booked a free alignment with the dealer and we're going to have this corrected.

Anybody looked into this with similar symptoms?

Cheers;

MSantos

Always

The alignment was checked on our HCH as part of PDI.

Its a requirement before I take a car new or used, especially if it just got off a boat, truck, train, or some other transport.

Most of the time the alignments of shipped vehicles are not generally too far out in my experience - but "not too far out" doesn't mean the same to everyone, and I know that anyone on this forum would be a little more critical of what the vehicle is set at.

What I do know is that, what your car may be at currently may not neccesarily have been disturbed during shipping. When cars are assembled at the factory, the alignments are done en masse right on the line -one right after the other. The worker is only getting the setting "within the specified range of tolerances", in other words spec +/- tolerance. This is generally fine and accepted by 99% of the population.

This is not to say that the adjustments could not have been knock out during shipment - it certainly happens. I have done several alignments on brand new cars, and while the were within the specified tolerances, they were not even close to what I would find acceptable for myself or one of my customers.

It definately won't hurt to have it checked, but while you are getting it done - be sure to introduce yourself to the tech doing the work. Explain why you are having it done and what your goals are. Try to nicely request that the settings be as close to "perfect" or set for low rolling resistance as possible - as close to 0 toe, 0 camber as specs allow and you and the tech are comfortable with. Get the before specs printed out so you really see if and how far it was out to begin with and see the improvements made.

Good luck and be sure to post an update with what happened.