--snip--
They are quoting $3,000 to replace the plate and auto-trans.

Parts and labor.
--snip--

Replace the whole transmission (and with what?), or just the bell housing,
or?
There are folks on here that have the books and can look up the recommended
labor times and so on, but that money seems excessive to me unless there's a
tranny rebuild or something else (quite substantial) involved. Even at
that... $1000 at the local shop rate ($85/hr) gets you ~11.75 hours of
labor. I recently R&R'd my torque converter by myself with a floor jack in
something around 8 hours or a little less, and that was taking my time. If
I'd had lifts and so on it would've been a whole lot quicker, so I'm
wondering what they're really paying for there. For instance; you can get a
rebuilt auto section for something like $800 shipped, and I've seen ~$132
for a flex plate, so... I dunno.

I wonder what Ken, Frank or Benny would charge for the job as you've
described it?

Cya,
Robert