Back in December, my justa was hit on the right rear wheel while parked. $9,000 worth of repair work (nearly the entire rear suspension was replaced) and nearly five weeks later, I got the car back.

Everything seemed OK, but I noticed the car was... Well, "squirrelly" is the best word I can use. I thought maybe it was slick roads (see that thread here) during winter. I thought it was my imagination perhaps. I asked at the local MINI club and got lots of answers, none of which seemed too plausible. I asked at my MINI dealer, and got no real specific responses either.

I'll jump to the moral of the story before I even fill-in the answers: When you think something's wrong, it probably is. And listen to your gut!

When the repairs were completed, the auto body shop—a reputable place here in Denver, where a family member of mine works—performed a full alignment, and all four tires were replaced with new. (One of them was destroyed in the accident, and I opted to get all new.)

In recent weeks, I saw that the rear tires were wearing strangely, but for some reason, it just didn't click. I don't know why not. Selective thinking? Wishful thinking?

Then three weeks ago, I departed on a nearly 5,000 mile trip back east. By the time I got from Denver, Colorado to Ithaca, New York, the rear tires were nearly bald—at four months old. I cut part of the trip short, and headed to Toronto, Ontario, a planned stop, and the reasonably closest MINI dealership. They did an alignment, and discovered both that it was way off spec (duh), and that they couldn't get it to spec (not good) due to an apparently bent sub-frame assembly on the right rear—a part that was replaced in the accident repairs.

CAD$800 later, I continued the vacation and got back to Denver with no obvious abnormal tire wear. The car is currently at the auto body shop again, which obviously warrants their work. I don't have a resolution yet. But I can tell from the alignment specs they provided back in January, and those provided by the MINI Vaughan West in Toronto, that the car wasn't aligned right from the beginning. The camber specs are different for sure. The toe specs from MINI are degrees/minutes and the ones at the body shop are in inches (anyone know how to convert them?), but it's safe to surmise that the toe wasn't done right, and the car's been dragging its rear tires for four months. As for the supposedly deformed part, we'll see.

Bottom line is the story continues. But on reflection, I knew intuitively that the handling of the car wasn't right, and I chose to ignore it. I'm hopeful that the $800 spent in Toronto will be reimbursed, but if it's not, this could end-up being a pretty expensive mistake.

Anyway, listen to your gut. I wish I had. I also wish I'd opted to have my local MINI dealer do an alignment—something that crossed my mind three months ago. Hindsight is 20/20.

I'll post a follow-up with final resolution later on.

Happy motoring.