Word on the street is the Mazda MX-5 Miata comes out of the factory just sort of aligned. The suspension geometry is within a wide specified threshold, but nothing is precise set and matching. The front wheels can have zero degrees of camber and it would be considered satisfactory. This is kind of surprising because such a lightweight sports car is very sensitive to differing geometry. You’d think Mazda would want to set it down perfectly so that potential buyers experience the optimum setup on the test drive.
It’s very unusual to take your brand new car in for an alignment service. Typically you do so after a few years’ worth of mileage. Even the ultra meticulous Porsche owners don’t take their 911 right to a suspension shop from the dealership. Nevertheless, I booked my 2026 MX-5 with a local performance shop to do the alignment, and realized two things.
One is the issue of the manual transmission. With less and less cars being fitted with a manual, you’ve got a generation of people who has never interacted with an H-pattern gear lever. These same people now work in automotive shops. You bring your rare manual gearbox car to a tire place, and it’s very possible that none of the staff there can move it onto the ramps. You wouldn’t know any better until you pick up the car and immediately wonder why it smells so much of burned clutch material.
This is why when I fitted a secondary set of wheels onto my Miata, I transported the wheels and tires separately to America’s Tire. Whatever I can to avoid trusting another person to drive the manual.
But it’s likely not possible to avoid it forever. What if there’s a manufacture recall? Outside of a Porsche dealership, I personally am not confident another brand of dealer will for sure have someone who knows how to drive stick shift. Even for Mazda, a brand that sells the most iconic manual roadster of all time.
The second realization is: you ever noticed most automotive service shops are not open on the weekends? I am super fortunate to have a job where I can call out for a few hours to take my cars in for servicing - whilst still getting paid. Krista the barista at the local coffee joint can probably call out too, but during those hours she is not getting paid. It’s a sort self perpetuating hole the working class finds themselves in. They can’t afford a brand new car - less chances of something going wrong, but they also cannot afford to take time off to service their used cars.
“Just buy used and take care of it” is not as easy in reality as it is pithily said. The very people that can use that advice often cannot do so because none of the service shops are open on the weekends.
My local America’s Tire is open on Saturdays, but you should see the absolute humanity that crushes into the store for those precious weekend hours.
This is peak Chinese.