It is possible that they charge book time but the can charge whatever they want, they can write their own book for customer pay times as well. Understand that the book is only a GUIDE, it is not the 10 Commandments of auto repair and they can really charge whatever the hell they want. It is up to you as the consumer to either authorize the repair at the quoted price or not and if you do and they do the job as agreed then you can just go ahead and pay the bill.

As far as 1 hour per side goes, I only charge that amount because it is a fair amount for the work involved and, honestly, that is what we always charged back in the day. Is that the real book time or just an arbitrary number that someone pulled out of their ass? I do not know, but I do know from years and years of experience that it is about right for the work being performed.

Mark