the Cost of Jeep Repair

Rear differential went bad for the second time on this Jeep (first time was in 2005). Not sure what all was involved, but service included parts and labor, which was about two full days per the mechanic. I called several repair shops around Columbus, Ohio, but most told me they couldn't work on this specific type of repair. I did not call any dealerships since my normal mechanic told me they'd be more expensive than the quote I received from the shop that completed the work. I'm told this is a frequent problem with the Grand Cherokees which is obvious since again, this is the second one I've had to replace, and I'm not hard on cars (mostly in-town driving and less than 8,000 miles per year).

The service seemed good for as much as I knew about the problem. He came recommended and I'd actually been to him before for regular maintenance like oil changes. He originally thought he'd need the vehicle for about five days, but once parts came in (next day), they actually completed the work in just two as mentioned above. The price seemed fair as the parts were about $400 of it. I think I may have had the oil changed at the same time and that's more expensive than usual (about $60) since I used pure synthetic oil and filters.

My advice would be to call around. Again, I had a mechanic I've used for years who knew who to recommend for the repair. He couldn't do it since they didn't have some right tools or something, but he was familiar with the going rates and who'd be able to do the job. I guess I might check with a dealer in hindsight -- maybe there was some sort of recall that would've helped since the problem seems to be very frequent on this model.