Why Fall Is Alignment Season: Prep Your Shop for the Rush

Fall may bring cooler temps and back-to-school traffic, but in the shop, it signals something else: alignment season. 

If you’ve been on the shop floor long enough, you know the signs. Customers rolling in with uneven tire wear. Complaints of vibration or drifting. Cars that just “don’t feel right” after a summer of potholes, long road trips, and hard braking. Fall is when those issues bubble to the surface—and it’s also your opportunity to turn alignment quick checks into fast revenue. 

Here’s why the season matters and how to make the most of it. 

 

Summer Driving Takes a Toll on Alignment 

Summer driving is hard on suspension and alignment systems. Long highway miles, family road trips, and constant exposure to heat, construction zones, and neglected infrastructure add up fast: 

• Potholes wreak havoc on wheel angles, often throwing toe or camber out of spec. 

• Unbalanced loads or towing strain suspension geometry, especially on trucks and SUVs. 

• Higher speeds and heat amplify wear on bushings, ball joints, and tie rods—parts critical to keeping suspension components tight and alignment in spec. 

Come fall, all those issues start showing up in your bay, often all at the same time. 

 

Fall Traffic = Shop Opportunity 

Once school is back in session, more drivers are out in the morning and afternoon. You’ll also see an uptick in: 

• Parents prepping vehicles for longer commutes and after-school runs 

• College students needing post-summer maintenance 

• Fleet vehicles coming off summer duty cycles 

That adds up to one thing: more cars in the bay. Alignments are one of the best ways to capture that traffic and boost daily revenue without slowing your shop down. And customers appreciate it—because nobody wants to burn through a new set of tires over something preventable. 

 

Make the Most of Alignment Season 

If your alignment bay hasn’t been busy all summer, now’s the time to dust it off and get ready. Start with the basics: 

Calibrate Your Aligner 

An aligner that is out of calibration leads to faulty readings, redos, and comebacks. Make sure your alignment system is current on updates and professionally calibrated. If you’re running a Coats aligner, our techs can handle that as part of a scheduled service visit through Coats Connect—the only coast-to-coast service network staffed 100% by Coats factory trained techs. 

Offer Quick Alignment Checks 

A quick-check alignment system like Coats Inspection Lane System can scan tread depth and alignment status in seconds as the vehicle pulls into the bay. Shops using the inspection lane system have seen alignment sales increase 3x, simply by identifying issues earlier in the workflow. Check more alignments sell more alignments 

Market Smart, Not Loud 

Add alignment checks to your back-to-school service specials. Promote it as a tire-saving or safety-focused check, not a hard sell. Most drivers know something feels off—but they need a trusted expert to point them in the right direction. 

 

Equip Your Bay to Work as Hard as Your Techs 

The bottleneck in many alignment bays isn’t the aligner—it’s the lift. If your alignment lift is outdated, slow, or unreliable, it adds friction to every job. And if it’s not ALI Certified, you’re risking both safety and liability. 

Coats Lifts are built for nonstop performance, with reinforced structures, corrosion-resistant finishes, and seamless compatibility with Coats aligners. Nearly all models are ALI Certified and designed to stand up to high-throughput environments. 

Don’t forget: Coats offers full-shop standardization, so everything—from aligners to lifts to wheel balancers—works together, is easy to maintain, and backed by the same service pros who installed it. 

 

Bottom Line: Fall Is the Time to Capture Alignment Revenue 

You don’t need to reinvent your shop flow to make alignment season work for you. Just be ready for it: 

• Tune up your tools before the traffic hits 

• Offer quick, visible checks to identify issues early 

• Keep your alignment lift and bay moving at the same pace as your techs 

Fall is when issues show up—but it’s also when smart shops step up. 

 

Looking to scale your alignment business this season? 

Coats offers everything from advanced aligners to ALI Certified lifts and digital inspection tools, plus the only coast-to-coast service network of factory-trained pros. Let’s keep your workflow flowing and your alignment bay full. 

Explore Coats alignment solutions today at coatscompany.com