Quote:
Originally Posted by danops
Most people do overlook corner balancing/corner weighting.
Here's a few reasons why:
1) Cost of Corner Balancing + Alignment
2) Cosmetics - they want to see how good it looks really low, wheel gap, camber, etc.
3) They can't decide what ride height to keep it at
4) Ground clearance - the most common complaint is "It's too low, I can't drive into my driveway"
5) More suspension adjustments in dampening & ride height for aftermarket wheel/tire combinations & tire rubbing
6) They don't know what corner balancing would do and how it could benefit them in safety, braking, acceleration, weight transfer in turns, and overall handling.
It's almost like ECU tuning.. people will buy aftermarket parts but will not spend the money for custom dyno tuning. The Dyno Tuning will be the best for performance, reliability, efficiency but costs $400-1000 plus the engine management $500-3000.
Suspension tuning can cost anywhere between $200-2000. There are so many concerns to get it tuned just right for the driver. Driving style is the biggest concern, followed by road conditions, power, brakes, and tire compound.
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You summarized this pretty well. Great job!
The undecisiveness of the height is the main cause of the cumulative cost: you lower it ($$), then corner balance it $$, then align it $$. Then you change your mind to get it lowered again, or perhaps getting it raised again....resulting to a cyclical and repeating cost. Believe me, I went through this process.
I believe that there could be a point where 'cosmetics' and correctly-balanced car can meet.
As far as "people not knowing about the safety benefit", that is probably something that sports car driver should begin to get education on.
BTW, automotive scales can cost over $1,000.00. He, who can invent an affordable bathroom scale that could measure up to 1,000 lbs, could make some money marketing the gizmo.