$850 is for ten hours labor to remove and reinstall the transmission from Peter Schmid (www.peterschmid.com) the installer wanted to let me know that if any of the exhaust manifold bolts broke off, he would need to charge additional labor hours......which is understandable. two other merc Indy shops have quoted me $1,000 and $900 respectively to install the tranny from the rebuilder. I took time to view the posts on this forum for Peter Schmid and they come up a winner every time. 24 month unlimited mileage warranty is hard to beat.

My concern is they might consider my core "junk" and charge me the $500 core charge. however, MY REAL concern is that if there is a warranty issue, I have to pay to have the transmission removed, pack it and ship it to California and then have Peter Schmid ship out a new one....all the time the car is out of commission.

my indy priced a rebuilt tranny for $1850 plus $350 for a new torque converter. He has rebuilt over 500 of these transmissions. He says that on older mercs (pre 1992) he NEVER replaces the torque converter. well, I'm just not all that sure that that is a good solution. BUT for the additional $350 for a new torque converter, I can sleep at night. right now he is looking like the best over all solution financially.