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Our family has a 1996 Peugeot 306 XRDT & a 2003 Peugeot 206GTI.
The mechanic who services our cars commented that neither vehicle had any adjustments for wheel alignment. However, when getting new tyres for the 306 this week the fitter insisted it was necessary to have a wheel alignment every 10,000km. On receiving the report I noted that the only change wasa 1 minute (1/60th of 1degree) for camber, caster & toe. Does that small change make any difference, or was I "conned"?

Your mechanic is sort-of correct.

The toe-in or toe-out of the front wheels will be adjustable. This is where the steering rack connects to the front hubs and is made adjustable so the wheels basically point in the right direction. It’s a fairly basic adjustment and can help when uneven tyre wear is evident or when the tyres and the kerb come together unintentionally.

Camber and castor can both be adjusted one way or another, sometimes with a bit of pushing and pulling with specialised equipment and is sometimes carried out when cars have been in fairly major accidents. Apart from that they are not easily adjusted and certainly not a job for the majority of staff at tyre stores around the country.

One of the reasons many manufacturers have stopped making castor and camber angles 'officially' adjustable is because making adjustments can sometimes compensate for damaged suspension parts which should really be replaced.

We are not against having a wheel alignment check carried out however, if the vehicle is tracking OK, the steering wheel is in the correct position when travelling on a straight road, and the tyres are wearing evenly then any fine tuning is not really going to provide too many benefits.

Once a car is connected to the wheel alignment gear, operators cannot help themselves make even the slightest adjustment as this often justifies the cost.

You can help with tyre wear by keeping the tyre pressures set correctly. This can have the added bonus of reducing your fuel consumption as well.