I have a commuter car, 2015 VW Passat. Had a coolant leak, took it in to a local mechanic who diagnosed it as needing a heater hose. The part is about $50 online. Their quote was $800
Plus $165 for coolant which literally costs less than $10, and plus $165 to diagnose. This is just outrageous, especially for a car that is probably worth about $6k. I will not have them do the work, but are insanely high prices for simple repairs the new normal?

What was the shop time component of that quote? Not familiar with the location of the heater hoses for that car, but on many jobs you end up spending several hours having to take crap apart just to get to the part you're replacing, then several hours putting it all back together.

Edit: yeah the $165 for coolant is criminal

I've found auto repair prices to be totally inconsistent.

Recent examples:

TPMS replacement
Discount Tire $275
Dealer $650

Transmisions Drain and Fill and Rear Diff service
two different independent shops $650 -$750
Dealer $350

Having to quote services independently because of the wild variance in price.

1939 said:

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I have a commuter car, 2015 VW Passat. Had a coolant leak, took it in to a local mechanic who diagnosed it as needing a heater hose. The part is about $50 online. Their quote was $800
Plus $165 for coolant which literally costs less than $10, and plus $165 to diagnose. This is just outrageous, especially for cancer that is probably worth about $6k. I will not have them do the work, but are insanely high prices for simple repairs the new normal?

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Parts prices online are mostly irrelevant. They're going to buy it wholesale and charge you retail.

You can buy the part yourself and they may just charge you labor, but they will not warrant the part. If it fails, you're going to have to warrant the part yourself and pay for labor again.

When I had a coolant hose leak on my previous 2008 jetta, I took it to a mechanic, and the quote they gave me was to replace not just the hose but also additional components that they expected to break in the process of replacing the hose due to plastic getting brittle over time. Fortunately, they were able to get the hose off without breaking anything else, so I paid substantially less than the original quote.

Quote:

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I have a commuter car, 2015 VW Passat. Had a coolant leak, took it in to a local mechanic who diagnosed it as needing a heater hose. The part is about $50 online. Their quote was $800
Plus $165 for coolant which literally costs less than $10, and plus $165 to diagnose. This is just outrageous, especially for cancer that is probably worth about $6k. I will not have them do the work, but are insanely high prices for simple repairs the new normal?

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Where are you located? I have a couple of VWs and have a great VW shop if you are in DFW.

Im outside of San Antonio.

In today's world you have to either have a go to place/contractor or get multiple quotes to figure out what is fair market value.

Recently had to replace a gas service line. 5 quotes. Ranged from 6250 to 18k. It is buyer beware out there. Second highest quote was one of the recs from here. So you have to vet recs as well. In the end 6250 was more than fair for the work involved and time spent by the contractor. Happy that I now have a go to plumber.

Looks like a fairly easy fix if you buy the hoses online.

Update. Took it to another shop and got the job done for less than half of the first place I took it to. Sucks I had to pay the diagnostic fee at the first place. Either way, it was an expensive fix for a minor problem.

I've corroborated your findings. Seems to be shop specific. I've got a Jeep going into the shop next week. First two shops gave me budgetary estimates of $2300 and $2500. Place I'm taking it estimate for same work and same OEM parts - $1300.

I guess the high price shops get enough people who accept the cost that they accept they'll lose some customers who shop harder. Just call around and seek referrals.

I've started to see $275/hr rates posted in some shops.