I just picked up a '91 740 gl (non-turbo) and the heater hose split open. No big deal, heater hoses are cheap enough, but I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere without tools or anyplace to work on it, so I bite the bullet and take it to an independent Volvo mechanic recommended off the cartalk website.

Estimate? $280 to replace both heater hoses, including hoses, clamps, coolant, and next-day air shipping to get the parts in. Now, I could guess that all the parts and shipping cannot be costing more than $80 (assuming wicked high shipping charges) but that's still $200 in labor. OUCH! The mechanic gave me a story about the hoses being very hard to get to and very difficult to replace. Being new to this car (and stranded away from home) I'm rather shafted, but just how badly am I getting it here?

Is this really the kind of labor-intensive job the mechanic makes it out to be?

Thanks for any input.