Ford Repair: Repairs to 1996 Ford Taurus, ford taurs, head gasket

Question
We recently purchased a 1996 Ford Taurs Wagon with approx. 125,000 miles on it. We bought it for $1800. The second day we had it we noticed that the brakes were making a noise the person that we bought it from had said that he had just replaced the pads on the front and back. We decided that we should have it checked out. Turns out that it needed all the rotors, pads had wrong ones on it, and they said that the back brakes were not working at all. That repair $800. Two weeks later check engine light came on and car started running a little rough. Took it into another shop ended up being head gasket. It ended up costing a total of $1820 for repairs. They worked on the car for a total of 5 days but charged 75 hours of labor does that make sense, can they do that, and is the $1820 high for head gasket. We dropped off the car the wednesday before thanksgiving he could not look at it until friday when they did part of the diagnostic and completed it on Monday Monday said 800-1000 but waiting for call regarding parts, worked on car for 5 days. Thansk

Answer
Michele-

 Both of those totals sound a bit high to me for a head gasket job unless they replaced both sides.  Heck, even if you did both sides I would expect 25-30 hours max.  Some shops do rely on "standard" times to complete a job.  But 75 hours?  Over 5 days that's 15 hours a day.  Even if they had two guys working on it in which case 15 hours could be a realistic work day (7.5 hours times 2 guys), it should only have take 2 days max.  I'm also a bit weary of the $800+ price jump after the "call regarding parts".  Now...I can't see the car so legally I can't say either way, but it does sound very suspicious to me.  If the shop I work in did business that way...well...we wouldn't be in business anymore.  Hope this helps.

Steve