Well, as you can see, you are getting no sympathy.

I think I am safe in saying that most of us have been there done that relative to driving old cars and being basically broke. When I returned to college after Vietnam, I luckily had a new VW bug. It was financed. If it had been a car that required much in the way of repairs I would have been screwed. I was barely scraping by and couldn't have come up with money for major hits.

The world doesn't work the way you think it should. It is not at all relevant that you can't afford to pay the apparent going rate to have your car fixed. The situation does not make the shop dis-honest. They know their costs and they can charge whatever they see fit.

Sincerely,

Good luck.

Steve