Alternator replacment cost

[IceBlue]

My 2007 9-5 Aero was recently diagnosed as needing its alternator replaced. The price quoted by the mechanic was $600, which strikes me as rather high, so I'd like to hear from others. Does anyone else have experience with the price of an alternator replacement? Thank you all.

[Audax]

It depends really, I'm in the UK but if I convert USD to GBP then I'd say if it includes the price of a new alternator and it's a high quality replacement then that would be a good price, if it's replacing with a secondhand untested part then it's expensive.

[IceBlue]

Thank you. This mechanic is highly reputable and I'm sure will use OEM or equivalent parts.
BTW, I discovered this site which has a lot of useful information: www.repairpal.com

[mikeloadsasaabs]

Not directly comparable once again, but we paid around €570 for a new alternator for our 9-5 here in Austria a couple of years ago. The mechanic quoted us around €100 for fitting based on the time expected (around 90 minutes), but he told us when we collected it that it was a b*gger of a job and had taken a lot longer than expected, but he was very fair and only charged us the quoted price.

[Audax]

It's a difficult job as the alternator sits at the bottom of the back of the engine, it should be slightly easier on a LHD car as the steering gear won't be in the way.

[mikeloadsasaabs]

That might explain why it was so much more difficult than he thought it would be, as our Saab was RHD and he probably didn't think of that