reasonable $$ for struts

Well ... I'd have gone to a suspension specialist. Do you have those ?

Graham

You bought rubbish damper inserts. You could have purchased OES inserts for much the same price. The KYBs will wear out quickly and their rates don't match the OES dampers.

I was offered Bilteins for $260 each or KYB for $150 each. Was told that the difference was the KYB would be somewhat stiffer and might not last as long. Those were the original struts on a car with 160,000 miles on it, so I don't expect to need to get the same wear.

Does anyone have any knowledge about my original question? Should it cost $900 to replace the front struts?

Obviously, the answer is no. You were robbed by around $500.

"Bob (but not THAT Bob)" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

So that's Bilsteins for $160 each. $20 extra, but better quality than the KYBs he bought. Plus shipping. I'm not seeing this $500 saving.

Oh, wait, were you expecting somebody to fit 'em free?

That's about twice what the parts were worth. Do some searching. eeuroparts.com or for a saab dealer try genuinesaab.com. If they used original Saab parts for the mounts then the price is OK.

That labor rate is also high but not unheard of. As the dealers raise their outrageous rates to $125/hour in some places, the indy's charge a %less and get away with it. Robbery, but market driven.

I would be more concerned about the parts markup vs the labor costs.

KYBs should be about $200/pr & mounts $100/pr + $150 labor, that gives you $450.

Correction: he only got robbed by $450.

I don't know of any shop that would do that job for $150.

$890 (total parts and labour paid by the OP) - $400 is $490.

Graham

Agreed. That is why you should shop around and let the shops know they are competing against each other. If the shop knows you don't price shop (and therefore don't know a reasonable price), they will rape you every time.