Schmidty's Garage at 19300 Beach Boulevard, Huntington Beach, California.

Brought in our '06 Ford Escape Hybrid for a non-working A/C. They started with $89 for diagnostics that would be rolled into any repairs - fair enough. All they found was that the fans weren't kicking on, so they wanted another $120 to figure out what might be wrong with the fans. We signed off on that. Then, when we're over $200 into it, they hit us with the news that we're looking at about $1200 for a new fan assembly. $160 (I think) to evacuate and refill the system with dye to look for leaks, 1.5 hours labor to replace the fans, and over $500(!) for the fan assembly. Straight-up told me that only one company made the fans, and it wasn't available cheaper anywhere else.

A lot of people would have fallen prey to the sunk cost fallacy at this point, and I'm sure that's what they hope for when they pull this routine - but they overplayed their hand here. I happened to be sitting in front of my computer right then, and I found *multiple* sources for that part # ranging from $91 to $200...including retail stores like Autozone while I was still on the phone with him.

I told him, based on this fact, I would not authorize any further work. Whether through ignorance or intent, he'd grossly over-quoted the part cost, and he still couldn't give me a solid answer as to what the actual issue might be.

So I'm out over $200, and I have a "maybe" diagnosis of a bad fan assembly to show for it. That said, it might also be a relay, a fuse, or something even simpler - so yeah. I'm not an idiot, and it's only for lack of a workspace that I don't do my own repairs. It seems that because my wife and I are women, and/or because the word, "hybrid" makes mechanics see dollar signs, they thought they could take us for a ride. No thanks. I don't know how they have such a high rating, but maybe they squeeze their customers so hard because glowing online reviews aren't cheap.

Edit: The owner, Shane, called me and insisted I was mistaken about the alternatives to OEM fan assemblies - He tried to tell me I was looking at generic, chinese, single-fan parts. This was not the case. Google P/N FO3115159 yourself and see what you find.