Thanks blovatt, looking forward to the result.

alignment done
 

Ok - so I finally got this all sorted out (although it remains to be proven that my tire wear is better over the next 12k miles).

I took the car in Tuesday for an alignment -- I explained that I wanted .04' toe on the front and exactly the spec value on the back.

When I picked up the car, they gave me the alignment report, showing that the rear tires were actually toe-out (i.e. negative toe) and the fronts were too far in. The ride-height seemed a little suspect cuz they were all a little different... but within reason I guess.

I drove away and noticed immediately that the steering wheel was off center by about 2 or 3 degrees -- AAHHHHH! I was late for a meeting, and could not get back there until today.

Today I actually rode in the car with the tech who did the alignment -- he agreed that the wheel was off center and said that he must have bumped the little bracket that's supposed to hold the wheel still while the car is on the rack.

Anyway 45 minutes later, we drove the car again and everything was fine.

I wanted to post my alignment report, but I can't for the life of me figure out where I put it -- suffice it to say that the numbers are all pretty close to the "target" value at this point, and I'm hoping that the tire wear will be ok.

Thanks to everyone for your help/advice -- and good luck to those of you who are having the same issues...

Glad you had the alignment done to your liking. What's the value for your rear?

I wish I could find the report, I'd just post it for you...i'm going to clean my office on the weekend -- if I find it I'll scan it to pdf and add it to this thread.

From what I recall, the the original toe values for the rear axel were -.02 and -.01, and after the alignment they were +.04 and +.04.

0.04 is too much, you are giving up wear for no benefit.

Lemme guess, the spec is "0.0 to 0.08" so the SA sold you on "middle"?

If the tech changed ANYTHING to fix the steering, etc, I'd insist on a check of the alignment. Id suspect the BMW work instruction requires an alignment check after such a task