Honest mechanics and honest shops are the answer.  
Unfortunately they seem to lose a bit of honesty if they see you as a
good paying customer.

So true, here the Chrysler dealers rate is similar to the smaller
garages, plus they even can save you money by getting it right the first
time.

Most of this clunking noise in the front of these Vans is caused by the
factory sway bar bushings, and, not the sway bar links.  I also was told the
sway bar links were bad and replaced these myself. Not the problem. I put in
a set of sway bar bushings "red plastic" from Advance Auto Parts and it
fixed this noise. Good luck,

Vehicle was Chrysler Cirrus.   It had the right rear hose problem
where the thing gets plugged (or kinked) and the fluid doesn't release
properly and the RR shoe gets smoked.  After mechanic repaired shoe
the first time the thing was smokin hot when my daughter got it home.
I found the hose problem on the web and told him to replace it.  I
told my daughter not to bring it there in the first place.  The
buttplug tried to sell her older sister a $600.00 brake job on a
Toyota Corolla.  I changed the front pads and she got 3 more years out
of car.  He is the same asswipe that ran into my friends car with a
plow.  He denied it and finally admitted when the neighbor showed up
and said,"Oh yea, I saw him hit the car with plow."

The whole point of my post was that I don't think the first pair
should have gotten bent and fallen out.  My wife doesn't go 4 wheelin
in her minivan.  I think he should have given us a break on the job
instead boning me.  He  could have charged me the 100 bucks for the
parts and 50 to put em in.  I am(was) good customer with 8 cars in my
family.

Yea Steve, maybe I'll start working on cars again.  My project car is
taking up the garage right now.  I'm thinking of building a barn and
putting a lift in it, and It'll probably pay for itself in the long
run.
Bob

In fact he generally buys the low-end part (for maybe what you can buy
the quality part for on-line) at the auto parts store down the street
with his business discount, and charges you, his customer, full list
(often more than that customer can buy it for at the same store).  I'm
not criticizing him for this - just merely pointing out a reality.

  Check NAPA prices and dealer prices to compare.

Exactly.

Good points.

Up to about 6 or 7 years ago, I did 99.9% of all the work on my own
cars.  I'm at the age now where I have to take it to a local shop for
the more major things (and occasionally take on some things that I now
have no business doing).  The shop I deal with allows me to buy my own
parts and bring them to them, and they charge the same labor that they
would if they were supplying the parts.  What I am giving up is their
guarantee of the parts and labor to install said guaranteed parts if
they fail.  What it does is allows me to buy the best brand and quality
parts for between 1/2 and full cost of what they would be charging me
for the no-name low-end part from the local parts store.  So I'm
basically self-insuring, which over the long run pays off with the much
better parts for  a little less or about the same as what I would be
paying them for the same job with inferior parts (that would need
replacing again, or would need replacing much sooner).

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')