Nobody cares if you are a 1/2 bubble off.
I have my own equipment too and my bubble always in the middle, where else would you put it.
My point was that the job of an alignment tech is to get as many jobs done in a day as possible. There are more techs out there that would ruin your suspension to "put the bubble in the middle" if it saves them 20 minutes than there are that would take the extra time to do the job
right, because to 90% of them the only thing that matters is the final number and not what you had to do to get there. It's probably why the OP's car is screwed up to begin with. I stopped going to alignment shops because I've only met one tech in the last 10 years that actually knew why the factory specs in the computer for these cars are garbage. Yeah, maybe those "techs" have done a 1,000 alignments, but if they'd put a factory alignment for bias ply's on a car with radials they've got no business turning wrenches. Sure, they work in an alignment shop, but the majority of them still don't understand how suspension actually works. They're just "putting the bubble in the middle" (or the computer in the green) and punching the clock.
There's one way to fix the OP's car properly, and so far neither of the two guys that worked in alignment shops would bother to do it the right way. Just put the bubble in the middle and leave the hatchet job for somebody else to deal with later.
So, like I said, if that's all you care about, carry on.
If the shop is using a bubble , I go somewhere else. I like all the info including SAI on the sheet.
I wouldn't. If you know how to use a bubble gauge you can put the suspension in the same place. It's just geometry, nothing fancy about it.
The problem is that most of the shops with all the fancy gear have their computers programmed with the original factory specs, and in most places they won't deviate from those factory specs for liability reasons. Never mind that the factory specs for these cars are for bias ply's and are completely incorrect for use with radial tires.