If a Michigan car came into my shop I'd quote $1000 for a front suspension rebuild also!

On a clean car (no rust) a good mechanic can rebuild the front end in a day if he has the right tools. But if the shop doesn't have the correct tools it can be a real [censored] to R&R those bushings. If the parts are rusted up then it can be an extremely frustating job even with the correct FSM tools.