Originally Posted by Monterey550i' post='822262' date='Mar 20 2009, 02:21 PM

First of all, I can't believe I need new tires already on my 2008 550i which has only about 20k miles, but whatever. So I have my car serviced recently at the dealer and he tells me I need new tires (I have the Continental Sport Contact 2s). The car is a lease.

Dealer tells me those are the only approved tires for the car and that I need to buy them from the dealer because my car has Active Steering Control and they have to do the alignment. I say "OK, how much?". Dealer says, including alignment, stems, etc, it's $2081 (+ tax I believe). I couldn't believe it. I ask if they can sharpen their pencil a bit since I've been such a good customer over the year (3rd 5 series for me) and he says that is as good as he can do.

So, I call around to my local tire shop (where I've bought lots of tires of the years) and find they can turnkey the entire deal including alignment and tax for $1,500 out the door for the exact same tires.

So my question is whether or not a quality local tire shop can do the alignment even if the car has active steering control. Obviously I'll buy the tires there. Only question is whether or not I'll still need to have the dealer do the alignment. It seems like extortion to me.