A friend of mine took his Ford to a chain tire store for an alignment. They charged him $750 to replace his outer tie rod ends. The parts retail for $50 and the job can be done in 30 minutes. That works out to an hourly rate of $700, plus the mark-up on the parts.

The interesting thing is that my friend had no idea that the had been taken to the cleaners. He had a warm feeling that he had done a good thing for his car. The shops have got to love customers like that!!!