Since I'm new to all this car stuff, I have my dad that used to have a 80's CRX tell me about what I need to do for maintenance with certain parts. I recently had my car in the shop overnight to change out my timing belt, air filter, radiator fluids, and radiator cap that was supposedly busted out, and some other kind of filter changed. My total came out to be $898, $400+ for parts and $400+ for labor. My dad's saying it should've been a lot cheaper. Does it just depend on the mechanic, does that seem about right, or did I get ripped off?

 

dealer wise.....that sounds right.

mom and pop shop charges around $500 for a t-belt (parts/labor) --- dealer is $600, and $700 including a water pump.
air filter they will get you for about $50 (dealer charge) probably 35 for small shop
radiator flush is about 100 either place (which is a b.s. charge b/c you have to drain the coolant to do a t-belt job)
radiator caps are about 30 shop charges

for mom and pop shop....it seems a bit high. for dealer, its right on

Paying a shop to wrench on your car is a huge ripoff in either case. OEM timing belt is $40 bucks. Coolant is $15 bucks and a cap is $20 bucks....and any mechanic should be able to do a tbelt on a d16 motor in 3 hours. (shop time with air tools) I can do em in a driveway sans air tools in about 3.5-4.

 

That's what I didn't include, the water pump, they did something with that. And the radiator cap was $15 at the shop I went to. But thanks, at least I didn't get gypped. Now for suspension installation, the guy I'm going to is charging $120. I'm pretty sure the installation depends on the guy too, right?

 

Kinda late to be asking that question. Should have asked when they gave you an estimate. If you didn't get one then that's on you. It's not like you can get a partial refund if they did.

 

Non-technical questions about value may only be posted in the Value sticky at the top.