Am I getting ripped off?

Hi - I have a 1998 Spider tspark 2.0 which has just been in for it's service at one of the big chain garages (not an Alfa specialist one). The clutch had been making a squealing sound for just under a year, so I knew that would probably need replacing. They quoted me £460 for parts and labour to replace the clutch kit. Does that sound about right?

Also, ever since I bought it (2nd hand 3 years ago) when you put it into 3rd gear if you push the gear stick as far as you normally would for any other gear it reverberates a bit, but is actually in gear. So, I just stop slightly short of pushing it up all the way and it goes in fine. The garage said I need to get this sorted as it means the gears are not aligned properly and quoted me £200-£300 to do that. Is that steep?

I know virtually nothing about cars so any advice/help is appreciated!
I live in Leeds (just on the west side) - one of my mates mentioned someone in Horsforth - don;t know if anyone knows of anyone in my neck of the woods who would do a good job and be cheaper than the above??

Cheers!

Hello and welcome
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Personally i'd give Roger at Peak ALFA a call and enquire what he'd charge and basically get different quotes from different places.......

I don't know of anyone in Horsforth, and I live there . I could easily have missed it though as I've only just moved, would be handy if there was!

C. W. Lear - Independent Alfa Romeo specialists - Home page is in Keighley so not miles away and always gets rave reviews in terms of service and price but I've never used him. Turin motors in meanwood I've found to be quite pricey for an indie.

As mentioned above I usually go to Peak Alfa, who are excellent, but I've got family in Sheffield so the distance isn't so bad.

There's also alfatech in Huddersfield who again I've never used but have a good reputation.

Had very similar problem with my clutch and I got it done very recently. It cost me £420 for everything.

Is the £460 for part's, labour and VAT? If so then it's not bad but I would check around first and try put it into an alfa specialst as mentioned above, if you can.

As for the gearbox I had problems getting into 4th and that was fixed at last service, where they removed and refitted the gearbox which fixed it. Think it cost around about that for the labour for me too, but that was at an alfa dealer and i'm never going to go there ever again! Rip off!