How To - Identify and Sell Wheel Alignments

How to correctly identify and sell wheel alignments.

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Check Tread Wear

First and easiest indicator that a vehicle needs an alignment is by checking the tyres to see how the tread is wearing. This can be done by sight or by hand.

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Types of Wear

There is 3 types of wear on a tyre caused by misalignment. These are Feathered wear, Heel and Toe wear, and Edge wear.

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Edge Wear

Edge wear is the most common type of wear and is the easiest way to pick up that a car needs a wheel alignment. Edge wear is when one side of the tyre, wears more than the other. This can cause one side to be worn right down to the cords or wire, while the other side has still got decent tread.

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Feathering Wear

This can sometimes be identified by sight if the case is bad enough but usually you will need to run your hand back and forth over the tyre to find this issue. You will feel the tyre catching your hand more from one direction than the other as you rub your hand from side to side over the tyre. This is due to the tyre wearing on the road at an angle causing lifting on one edge of the tread blocks.

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Heel and Toe Wear

Heel and toe wear is when the rear of the edge tread blocks has worn lower than the front of the tread block and is usually identifiable by sight although running your hand over the tyre will help identify the issue if its not immediately obvious.

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Notify the Customer

These three wear patterns are the immediate signs of the vehicle needing a wheel alignment and the customer should be notified at the time of sale or as soon as possible after the tyres are fitted, preferably before they have left the branch so the alignment can either be done while they wait or be booked in for another time. Show the customer that you are trying to save them money by preventing their new tyres from wearing due to a bad alignment and you can usually make an easy add-on to the initial sale.

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<p>Here is one example of what you could say when you first see the tyre on the car after the customer has asked for a price. “Hey these tyres have been wearing pretty badly on the edge. If you run your hand down the inside of the tyre you can feel the wires nearly coming through. I’d recommend getting an alignment to prevent any new tyres from doing the same thing and wasting your money.”</p>

Here is one example of what you could say when you first see the tyre on the car after the customer has asked for a price. “Hey these tyres have been wearing pretty badly on the edge. If you run your hand down the inside of the tyre you can feel the wires nearly coming through. I’d recommend getting an alignment to prevent any new tyres from doing the same thing and wasting your money.”

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<p>This is another example of a sales pitch that can can be used after tyres have been fitted: “Our technicians in the workshop just mentioned that your tyres have been wearing badly because of a bad wheel alignment, would you like me to book your car in for an hour sometime to get that sorted out?”</p>

This is another example of a sales pitch that can can be used after tyres have been fitted: “Our technicians in the workshop just mentioned that your tyres have been wearing badly because of a bad wheel alignment, would you like me to book your car in for an hour sometime to get that sorted out?”

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Thank you for viewing these instructions on how to identify and sell wheel alignments. You should now have a greater understanding on this topic.