To all of you who have responded- thank you for your expertise and especially to David's response: I bought it from a dealer when I was between a rock and a hard place; my Saab basically having died. I asked about maintenance, and was given very lengthy CarFax records which showed consistent maintenance and care. As to the timing belt, I was told "Of course, that's standard". They also dissuaded me from taking it to a mechanic, saying that they couldn't let it off the lot for that long, other people were ready to buy as is, and I had the extensive CarFax records, so why would I want to go to all that trouble? (I know, I was totally gaslit and walked right into the bear's den, but it was my first time buying a car from a dealer and I had no one to advocate for me.I know I should have been more vigilant, but I was in a rough spot) So jump to today; my old mechanic is the guy who checked for the timing belt. He also said a lot of the repairs suggested by the SF place were unnecessary and he can do front axles, cv joints and struts for $1600, and the timing belt (first) for $1k. I have found a law firm that specializes in suing dealers who lie to their customers and have filed a report but it's probably a fart in the wind at this point. There are other things that happened related to this dealer that seemed a bit shady also, but right now I'm just hoping the car runs until my guy can pick it up on Thursday. That would really suck...when you look at the amount of chaos and broken things in the world, it's amazing that more bad stuff doesn't happen. I'm just getting my quota of it now.
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