It's been a couple months since I bought my Cobalt. When I test drove it, the car was making a clunking noise under the car on the driver's side whenever I would go over bumps. The co-owner and mechanic of the dealer looked at it and said the rear lower control arm bushings are worn. I did end up knocking the price of the car down, but I asked him, if I brought the car back to him to put in new bushings, how much would it cost. He said to replace both would be about $300. I'm not a mechanic, so I'm not sure if I am qualified to say, that based on difficulty, the $300 is justified, but he raised the car up on his lift and the bushings look easy to get to, and from what I've seen, control arm bushings aren't that expensive($20-$30 each). So why $300? Could you guys tell me if this is reasonable? Should I go somewhere else?

 

You're talking the rear bushings on the front control arms I assume?

A lot of that $300 is labor. Bushings usually have to be pressed in and out of the control arm; if you want to do it yourself you could always remove the control arm and take it into a shop and have them remove/install them.

 

Sounds pretty good to me. 2.5hrs flat rate time x $90/hr = $225labor, bushings ~$50ea x 2= $100 total=$325.

 

Sounds about right but I would be the ******* who torches them out.