Honda Repair: Alignment Questions, alignment services, perfect alignment

Question

Alignment Stats Hello!

I recently drove over a "half-curb" by accident and thought for sure that it must have broken something. My tires badly needed to be replaced anyway, so I had them replaced yesterday. Before I got the new tires my car was drifting to the left on roads fairly bad. After getting the new tires it started drifting to the right... The mechanic recommended that I get an alignment done at Firestone. I have had the car since 2007 and put about 50k miles on it, and have never had an alignment done until now.

I Went to Firestone this morning and had the alignment done. The tech told me that they had a "hell of a time working on it" and that "certain things were not adjustable". I have attached the document with the alignment stats here as an image. After leaving my car was still drifting to the right exactly the same as before. It's not really bad, but if I take my hand off the wheel my car would run off the road after about 5 seconds (at 30mph anyway). So I started getting this feeling that since I didn't know a lot about cars they were taking advantage of me somehow. I mean how can my car still be drifting exactly the same as before after having the alignment done?

So my first question is, do the stats I have uploaded look right? As in does it look like they did everything correctly? The tech told me that the values out of range "would not wear my tires" but that they were "not adjustable anyway".

My second question is, what's the real deal about the "drift test"? Although plenty of sources claim it's a reliable way to test your alignment, one guy stated that roads are slanted to the right for water runoff purposes, and therefore even with perfect alignment your car will always drift right. So is this test reliable, and how bad does the drift really need to be?

Thanks So Much!

Answer
Steve, specs look good to me. I don't believe they are taking advantage of you, but, i have had others complain about Firestone's alignment services. I have also had alot of people asking me questions about these generations of civic's having alignment/vibrations/steering problems more than usual.

True, some of the alignment specs are not adjustable. But, repairable. Meaning if you replaced all of the ball joints on the upper and lower control arms, with actual OEM Honda parts, then this would bring some of the specs back to there true degrees of acceptability. Honda states on camber that you can be up to 1.5 degrees +/- and not excessively damage the tires or cause premature wear. Your tire selection should not have been what was on sale or the cheapest. But, your car has a fully independent suspension and you should have chose a tire that has an A-symetric design. (Meaning the inside of the tire has a harder compound. And the outside of the tire has a softer compound.)

I am unaware of the "drift test". And have or would never attempt this test to a customers vehicle period. Unless this was a high performance vehicle which there vehicle would be reaching high speeds and excessive cornering. Where the camber and caster could be adjusted to meet the chassis and vehicle specs.

Roads are a tremendous damaging agent towards your tires and suspension components. I try to avoid driving in ruts whenever i can but, DOT's across the country can only do so much for the roads we commute on everyday.