Not Chicago, and not a dealer, but had a place in The Woodlands, TX (Rooster Ridge Car Care -- avoid) quote me 8hrs of labor at $195! an hour for an upper ball joint, saying that "Lexus has the job booked at 8 hours"... 90% sure that's probably not accurate, and just s***ty practice by a shop.when your labor rate is $160/hour why does a dealer feel the need to charge 3-4x the number of actual hours on a repair?
Pardon the digression, but saw $160/hr and thought "at least thats a little more reasonable" lol. Needless to say, an Oreillys rental tool and an hour or so with a breaker bar and we're good.