Advice for Strut Job...Seems Rediculous.

Hey Guys/Gals. I'm in a pinch and thought I could check on a forum to get some back up. Short version. My wife has a 2011 CX-9 Touring model I think. She says when she makes a slow sharp left turn she hears popping in the right front corner. I noticed it too. Not causing a problem...just a slight noise. Well I got her new tires yesterday and told them to check it out. First they said it may be the strut bushings....not a problem now but you may eventually need a new strut. Well when I picked it up, they didnt do an alignment because they said I needed a new strut and it wouldnt hold if they had to replace the strut. I understand that part....how much is a new strut out the door I ask. $550 plus tax they say. I think that's BS. I remember having a strut replaced in a Pontiac years ago and I think I paid about $250. The strut and assembly parts are less than $200 online. I know they have to mark them up to make a profit. They said it would take about 30-45min worth of labor to put a new one on. Are they trying to screw me? I want to get another opinion from another mechanic. This just seems ridiculous to me. I need to make a decision soon. Any advice you can offer would be appreciated. Thank you!

Go to repair pal.com and that should give you a ballpark estimate of how much it would cost in your area to replace the struts. You mentioned just strut? they should be replaced in pairs. The 2 struts alone are about 230 dollars online.

I'm guessing that $550 is for 2 front struts since no reputable shop would recommend replacing just one strut on a 2011 unless it was a freakishly low mileage 2011. Your left and right struts have about the same amount of wear and by the time they're 6 years old and probably around 80k miles that wear is significant. Slap on just one new one and it's going to throw the handling off as one side dampens considerably differently than the other.

By the time they buy the parts locally (they don't have time to order them online for a big discount and wait 3 days for them to get there) and charge you book rate on the repair $550 is probably about right.

If they're just doing one I'd ignore the estimate entirely and find a better mechanic.

The repairpal estimate for your area is between 439 and 542 dollars. You can put an exact zipcode to get the estimate.