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> Your guy will charge in the neighborhood of $45-60 > per hour, know what > the problems are and take care of the simple stuff > (like busted > bleeders) without fuss. Your guy will encourage you > to learn more about > the car and appreciate its simplicity and > sturdiness; he would never > tell you to 'find another car' over stuff this > minor. I don't know what the living costs are are Prescott, AZ, where you are, and I don't recall where the original poster lives, but labor rates vary wildly across the country. Here in the SF Bay Area, an expensive place to live, labor rates are $90/hour and up. Specialist places often charge $120/hour. None of these people are ripping anyone off at those prices, it's just that expensive to live here. Some mechanics also look at things in the hard light of economics. A T3 can be had in decent running condition for $1500, so spending $1000 on fixing one up seems foolish to some people. Only 10 hours of labor will hit that mark here, so I'd guess this guy is simply trying to save some money for a client. I'll agree that his estimates for what's wrong are inflated, but it's also all-too-common practice to inflate rather than low-ball and get burned when it takes longer than you calculated, which only results in less money for you or an unhappy customer or both. Owning old cars is, IMHO, not a habit for someone who can't or won't learn the basic mechanics themselves. Once these skills and some simple tools are acquired, maintenance costs can fall dramatically on most old cars. Air-cooled VWs of every stripe are nearly ideal cars on which to acquire these skills, as they're simple and sturdy cars. So, to the original poster, if you have the time, the space, and the patience, get this car back from the mechanic, buy a copy of the repair manual and "How to Keep your VW Alive", and start learning. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! - What will yours do? http://my.yahoo.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~