Do I think I'm stealing if I keep or charge for the three hours when it only takes me two . . . NEVER. Never crossed my mind to look at it that way.
Book time is exactly that, it's how long a job should take the average mechanic with the proper tools. If you are mechanically talented and spend more on tools to have just the exact special tool you're investment in that tool will pay off in being able to do the job safer, easier and faster.

I've had that broken bolt or something unseen happen that wasn't my fault but yet the customer refused to understand something happened beyond my control. Might have been from lack of proper maintenance, poor previous repair, age of materials, rust and or corrosion or a backyard modification not evident at the time of original estimate and that three hour job ballooned to four or five and I ate it because the customer threw a fit.
Case in point. You come in with a fifty five dollar tune up coupon. You haven't had the plugs done in the last 150K miles. One plug is difficult and takes the threads out with it. Who's fault is it and who pays to repair or replace the head. If I'm lucky I stopped when it didn't feel right and called you to advise you I could proceed and this might happen or I might be able to remove it and not have any problem. If I informed you and left the choice up to you I'm good either way. If the plug gave no warning so I had no reason to call and it pulls the threads I'm screwed and it's a fight. Or . . . you tried to do it yourself or the last shop screwed it up and put it back together and brought it to me knowing it was damaged and you hope I'll get the blame for the damage.

In the shops I worked in, we went by "book" time. If I presented an estimate for three hours and you approved it, you paid for three hours. If I ran into a "normal" problem like stripping something because of me and it took five hours you paid for three. Where it get's tricky is if I feel it's your or your cars fault. That's hard to fully explain and very arbitrary but there are vehicles where you open the hood and you know the only time this comes to a shop is when it can't be driven any longer without help.

But on the other side of things if a job fell apart (in a good way) and fell back together there were times I'd give some of that back to the customer. I worked independent shops so I had the freedom to do so. I would also add a little extra to my bills, book says 3 hours I'd estimate 3.2 Not enough to lose the job to another shop but a little cushion and in most cases didn't need it. It was a great sales tool as I could discount at the time I was presenting the estimate if the customer was iffy or if the job went normally I could drop the extra .2 when billing it out and have a customer who was paying less then he was quoted. It was amazing how good that little discount was to gain loyalty.
But, that's just me and in some shops and especially dealerships the mechanic doesn't have that kind of control. I've been in shops where extra parts came in for a job and I was expected to "hang" them needed or not. Now that to me IS STEALING and I'd walk rather than be part of that. That's why I chose not to work at places like Ptune where the mechanic isn't paid the lions share of his income from his talent in labor but paid more on parts sales. It pushes mechanics to hang as many parts as possible to make more money because you're labor is devalued by being paid a much smaller commission on it.
That's my two cents

 

This was a sore point for me when I worked in fleet maintenance. Some dealerships our drivers would use charged a flat hour per complaint. You take one of our cars in and you have three complaints, you pay three hours flat rate for them to check the car over and give an estimate.

Then depending on the dealership it would be applied to the repair, might be applied to the repair or was just the charge for checking it out and the repair was separate !!

 

Ah, now you're talking diagnosis. Always a grey area when there are multiple complaints. If the writer writes it for an hour diagnosis per complaint and they are all related, I obviously don't charge 3 hours. If they turn out to be three totally different things, then it could technically be charged.

Being honest is key here though. It doesn't matter if its at a dealer or independent shop- a dishonest tech can ruin everything us honest ones stand for.

 

Very good info guys. I have a little bit more knowledge and understanding. It gets bad when you pull a part to replace it and the related part falls apart in your hand. Like a timing belt cover. You pull the cover to do the belt and when you go to install the cover the darn bolt hole is shattered and now needs to darn cover needs to be replaced. $35 Part but I'm sure NOT paying for it.

I stand behind other mechanics and dealers all the time when the circumstance permits, which is most of the time.

Back to the OP's question, you now see the options. How attached are you to the car? Kiss claims that he is upside down but if he added up the cost of the car and parts he put on it, he may be able to sell the car for that amount. When you are paying for everything to be done, it's a whole different story.

I apologize for the thread jack.

 

Just to finish my part of this saga...

Took my car to a highly-recommended indy mechanic.

New catalytic converter $1875
2 new oxygen sensors $630

Unfortunately, we've had terrifically rainy weather here and the buzzy sound has vanished altogether, so he can't really identify the problem. So if the sound goes away in the rain, does that make it sound more like a catalytic converter problem or less? I didn't mention the dealer's desire to replace the catalytic converter + oxy sensor because I didn't want to bias his judgment.

An engine mount is broken $180

Yeah, about same price.

120,000 maintenance $1800-2000 (incl. new water pump)

More like $700. And that timing belt was supposed to be replaced at 105K, not 120K. Thank you big name dealer. The water pump is fine and can go a long time more.

Control-arm bushings $700 (approx)

Says they could easily last another 30K miles. The "cracks" the dealer mentioned are just minor road wear.

So I'm going to spend $1400 with this guy instead of $5500. Granted, we didn't find the cause of the buzzy/rattling sound, so maybe there will be future repairs, but considering the things the dealer wanted to charge me for that weren't needed AND the fact that the dealer might have let me engine destroy itself because they didn't tell me the timing belt was due...grrrr...

 

I checked the owners manual and some of those belts are on a 150,000 change cycle. I was shocked to see that.

Where are you located? I have seen some indi shops with prices just as high as the dealer because they know their stuff and think they are just as good as the dealer if not a little better with service. I have actually seen that.

Sounds like you want to keep the car so I'd do like Kiss suggested and shop around a little more. Have a muffler shop cut a cat in for you and shop around for some of the other stuff as well.

 

Irv put it best. H recently passed the 3,000,000 mile mark. When they asked him how he pulled it off, he quickly and simply said, I followed the instructions in the owners manual.

Man drives record 3 million miles in the same 1966 Volvo - TODAY.com

 

Control-arm bushings $700 (approx)

That one just seems out of the ball park unless there is more to it.

Autozone sells the whole arm with bushings and ball joint for $90 and they have a lifetime warranty.
Duralast/Control Arm - Lower (520-794) | 1995 Volvo 850 5 Cylinders 5 2.3L Turbo DOHC | AutoZone.com
FCP has them from 40 to 120 each depending on Mfg and quality.
Volvo 850 Control Arms Parts | FCP Euro[]=307172014
There are only three bolts holding each arm in place so I don't see how anyone comes up with 3-4 hundred dollars in labor ??

How it's done:

 

And a further update...indy mechanic said today that yes, it's the catalytic converter. Since I never told him of the dealer's diagnosis, I guess it's good that he came to it on his own.

I opted to put a $400 aftermarket CC on it instead of the $1400 factory model. The dealer wanted another $700 for both oxygen sensors...indy mech said they're fine.

 

Just some comments about the updates:

The water pump is likely fine. But since it is driven by the timing belt, some shops recommenind replacing it at the same time so you aren't paying the labor twice if it starts leaking in the next 105,000 miles. Personally, I leave it up to the customer. While water pumps do leak, they aren't as common as a lot of other items.

The control arm bushing price is right in line. You can't possibly compare aftermarket prices and dealer prices. An aftermarket anything is going to be cheaper. The arms are about $200 each plus labor and an alignment is recommended.

Not sure I'd recommend cheap aftermarket ones. I've seen more than a few cars come in with busted bushings on relatively new arms.

That video is the 850 arms (according to the title anyway, I did not watch it). The procedure is similar but not the same. Labor is an hour per side if I remember correctly.

 

My beef with the control-arm bushings isn't the cost per se, but rather the way the dealer handled it.

Last spring the dealer said "oh man, your bushings are cracked, you really need to get that fixed, should we just go ahead and do that for you, it's $500". Didn't have the money so I said I'd wait.

Next time I had it in for an oil change I talked to the guy and he said "you can go a few months, but you definitely want to get that done."

Came up again when I had it in last week. The price has climbed to $700.

Indy mechanic is saying "they don't look brand new, but the wear is normal. I'd estimate you can get another 30,000 miles. If you don't slow down at speed bumps or if you drive over potholes, they'll wear sooner but if you drive normally, there's still plenty of life left. Definitely not urgent."

 

Wowzers!

I bought the cat for my Golf from these guys and they seem to be a stand up company. I ordered the wrong cat and they took care of it with no problem

2003-2005 Volvo S60, V70 2.4L Non Turbo Catalytic Converter 52843

Sounds like your dealership is really a stealership.

 

That's really true for any car.