It used to be the little back street garages which had a reputation for ripping off unsuspecting owners ,but theses days the dealers seem to be at least as bad.
Yes, and I believe that is because really they do not want to touch out of production cars as they give the workshops too many problems. They now have 'master fitters', not 'mechanics', who are trained to work on cars in an accountants mode, with set jobs only being undertaken in set times, with set profits, for a set return for each bay in the workshop.
Old cars, don't we know, can give unforeseen problems, so I think now the main dealers just do not want to know them and give greatly inflated quotes for jobs to scare you off. If the customer is mad or ignorant enough to accept their offer, then of course financially the dealer is covered for the time that car will be occupying a bay.
The old style mechanics mantra was "we will willingly put right anything", but now it is "we will undertake any repair that is economical viable and within our set accountants criteria". If there is any doubt about achieving that, then of course they produce a lovely inflated quote to cover all contingency.
EDIT: Never forget of course we are also in a 'modular' society, where nothing is repaired by replacing individual tiny components. No it is a case of sliding out a faulty module, panel, board, etc, and sliding back in the replacement. Cars are no exception, and if a small component goes wrong, "right replace the whole unit" is the cry! 'Master fitters' are trained to slot in new units, not rebuild using tiny individual components. Cars come off the production line built in modules, so the garages fit modules to repair. If a bearing shell requires replacing, or the head requires re-skimming, we are almost at the stage were garages will say "new engine required" as they have not got the trained staff, nor the facility in their accountancy controlled business to risk their profit margins in repair when they can simply install a new engine at full margin in a set time!
That is how I view it anyway!
