First the opportunity:
I had my car at Pep Boys (pb) in Princeton NJ yesterday. Surprisingly they are shutting down the retail parts business. Everything on the shelves is 50% off. I asked one of the guys if it was just this store or not. He replied "No, all the pb in this area are closing down retail." Yes, I neglected to ask if this included parts in the back like alternators and tie rods. Who knows?

Looks like I was a few days too late, shelves pretty much picked bare, but who knows around you. Some tools I would never have thought of buying are regular price were pretty tempting though.

Second the cost (ok alignment info but it sounded cool)

I'd read about a few of us who have purchased their alignment guarantee package. $149, alignments for 3 yrs. Just know what you're getting. Their alignment provides a snapshot before and after of toe, caster, camber. But, I realized afterwards I just paid for the toe to be adjusted. They will not adjust castor without setting up a separate appointment for time involved. Yes I tried explaining i just had the bolts out two weekes ago (IOW they will just slide out, no binding), no joy. Plus he quickly pointed out i had non jaguar shims in there. They could never guarantee the job. Thinking to myself: ITS JUST A F#$KING WASHER! - Yeah that'll fail fast . . . I just smiled and let it drop.

Oh, BTW when I asked "and the tie rods aren't loose, right?" He replied: oh I didn't check. You'd have to make an appointment for a front end check." I don't know about you. But I've had my garage check the front end, never been charged. Every single alignment I've ever gotten starts with a check for play in the ball joints, etc.. Hell, I've had mechanics politely refuse to do alignment because of a bad ball joint.

Well, at least I know the toe is correct :-). Hope it helps you. BTW - here's where you break the news to me: "John adjusting the castor can change toe readings", I promise I'll just laugh.

Hope this helps you, John

 

Not sure if Pep Boys can survive if they shut down their retail parts business. I have purchased parts there (especially batteries) for many years, but would never trust their service department with any of our vehicles. For alignments I go to a locally-owned long-time-in-business shop that specializes in alignments and tires. Same techs for many years and extremely knowledgeable as well as fairly priced....

 

Most car owners are totally clueless about mechanical things. All they want is their car fixed as soon as possible without having to go very far out of their way. Almost nobody ever takes their car to another shop for a second opinion. People driving by will see the sign. Its convenient. I'm sure Pep Boys will survive fixing the billions of common SUVs, just we won't be bringing them many Jaguars.

But all their local stores that I'm familiar with here closed the retail section quite some time ago. I kind of miss them as they had a larger selection of car care products and paints than the smaller parts stores or big box stores. Its getting to where its a waste of time to ever go shopping for anything anymore. Despite millions of square feet of retail all around me, nobody ever has what I need. Seriously I just a few weeks ago I ordered online some water hose washers, the red rubber ones rated for hot water connection for the washing machine. I'm not going to buy a whole new hose when all I need is the red washer. I tried every hardware and home store in a twenty mile radius. Used to have several dozen packages hanging on a peg at every hardware store, but not any more. Now that's an internet-only item. Oh well, so I couldn't wash clothes for a few days but now I've got like 50 of them for the price a package of five use to be. I guess Pep Boys figured there's no point to a retail store anymore when customers can get everything they sell online with free shipping in just a couple of days for cheaper.