Open road across the Common, tight streets behind it
Croydon Road runs across the open expanse of Mitcham Common and feels faster than anything in the town centre, so speeds creep up between junctions. That stretch is where local drivers notice the symptoms: a car that wanders and needs small steering corrections to hold its lane, or a steering wheel sitting a few degrees off while the car goes dead straight. Both point at geometry rather than tyres, and neither shows up when you are crawling round the one-way system at Fair Green.
Behind the main roads the picture is different. Many of the Victorian and interwar streets around Figges Marsh and towards Pollards Hill are parked on both sides, leaving single-file gaps, and Carshalton Road narrows over the railway and tram lines by Mitcham Junction station. Tight gaps and kerb contact are how most alignment faults around here begin. The signalised Figges Marsh junction adds the stop-start mileage that wears bushes and joints, and worn bushes let angles drift even when nothing has been hit.
We check the mechanical condition before we measure anything, because setting toe on a slack track rod end achieves nothing lasting. After that it is a full four-wheel measurement: toe, camber and caster at the front, and the rear axle read as well so we know the thrust angle. On a car with a simple rear beam there is often nothing adjustable at the back, and the honest answer is that we set the front to the line the rear is actually pointing in and tell you why the wheel was crooked.
It is a short hop from the town centre. Follow London Road south to the Cricket Green, take Cranmer Road to Carshalton Road and head south over the bridge by Mitcham Junction, and the road becomes London Road into Hackbridge. Around eight minutes for two and a half miles, and the car is usually ready the same morning.