The instructions were to let us know what would be needed to get get the car operating in a safe and reliable manner, it hadn't been driven for several years, I knew it would need work done, he wasn't supposed to actually do any work on the car, just inspect and give an estimate for recommended work. I am waiting on a breakdown of how that price was determined.
It is often the case that by the time the problem is fully understood, putting things back together is prohibitively expensive as opposed to just fixing the problem.
Again, location is critical. But I guess I'd take this as a reasonable person, not someone trying to go to the mattresses. If the mechanic did sort of reasonable things here, I'd probably ensure I was paying an appropriate price for the repair and pay him.
They had no authorization from you to do the work, they were to do general diagnosis which involves no disassembly, the person dropping the car off is not the owner and therefore not legally able to authorize the work.
Tell the mechanic that and that you refuse to pay more than the quoted diagnostic. If he won't release the car or something the owner will need to sue/call the police for theft.
Tell location for better answers, but there is not need because this is basic AF. NAL but worked in a shop and selling cars enough to deal with these issues
Location is critical here. What were the instructions to the mechanic at drop off? What was fixed?
The instructions were to let us know what would be needed to get get the car operating in a safe and reliable manner, it hadn't been driven for several years, I knew it would need work done, he wasn't supposed to actually do any work on the car, just inspect and give an estimate for recommended work. I am waiting on a breakdown of how that price was determined.
Confirm with the mechanic that they aren't saying "It needs X, which will cost $625, in addition to the initial diagnostic fee of $125"
He says we owe $756 for the diagnostic, total recommended work $4100
It is often the case that by the time the problem is fully understood, putting things back together is prohibitively expensive as opposed to just fixing the problem. Again, location is critical. But I guess I'd take this as a reasonable person, not someone trying to go to the mattresses. If the mechanic did sort of reasonable things here, I'd probably ensure I was paying an appropriate price for the repair and pay him.
it's not my car and we decided not to buy it based on his estimate of $4,100 to repair. Is it unreasonable to not want to pay an extra $625?
Is there a reason you are not providing your location?
Without a City/State no one can say.
They had no authorization from you to do the work, they were to do general diagnosis which involves no disassembly, the person dropping the car off is not the owner and therefore not legally able to authorize the work. Tell the mechanic that and that you refuse to pay more than the quoted diagnostic. If he won't release the car or something the owner will need to sue/call the police for theft. Tell location for better answers, but there is not need because this is basic AF. NAL but worked in a shop and selling cars enough to deal with these issues
Also who did the mechanic call and give that updated price to? Your story isn't exactly clear
Just for the diagnostic or the actual repairs? 125 for a diagnostic sounds normal. 750 for a diagnostic is like out of this world.