He had a replacement in stock, the truck was on the lift, and could do the work immediately.
That's the most important sentence in the original post.
Convenience is the most coveted and expensive luxury. Everyone endures it in one way or another. Your Starbucks coffee, that soda you bought when filling up, popcorn at a theater, paper plates, and immediate service with all parts available.
At a different time, with the truck off the lift, with a scheduled appointment... Those factors may have changed the quote a bit. The time to negotiate is before she's on the bed with her skirt around her ears. The psychological effect of seeing your vehicle on a lift cannot be underestimated in regard to perceived value of service immediacy.
I'm no professional mechanic, but I suspect that he had a choice between back burners, a break, or doing that job. It took a bit more than might have been expected to encourage the last option. That's probably the end of the story. He fixed that vehicle when he could have been kicking back or catching up.
The only
strange thing I'm seeing here is one of the most canned conversations I've ever seen quoted. If I encountered that in reality I'd seriously question whether or not we've been invaded by alien androids. It's like a script for a bad commercial from 1983.
Is the price reasonable? Well... Was it paid? If so, it was reasonable, given the circumstances. It may not have been
palatable, but it was reasonable. People here aren't wrong; very few want to touch older Land Rovers now. Those who will do so are therefore more valuable, whether or not they choose to charge for that value.
Dude just tripped and ended up landing bent over a barrel, in the end. It happens.
Cheers,
Kennith