TL;DR (now with spoiler options): >!My wife has taken her car in on her own for oil changes and routine maintenance the last two times...First time she came told me the estimate was $20K (actually $2K) and the second time, she told me they needed to change out her engine (see the end of the story for the "punch (to the gut) line"!<

Background: I am my wife's biggest fan. I know she is capable of anything (even giving me a heart attack), but I also know that she has struggle areas (I do too, you should see me try to do anything creative, but I digress). Two of these areas are finance and car maintenance.

I'm not saying I'm good at car maintenance, but she's not even good about taking it in for routine maintenance, so we're working on those things.

The last two times she's taken her car in, I've been hands off so she can learn the process. I told her I knew the first time in, we'd have a pretty big bill because it had been awhile, so I told her to put it on the credit card and we'd pay it as we can (don't tell r/personalfinance ....not my favorite thing to do, but she needs an operating vehicle for her commute and we didn't have the cash on hand)...anyway

She gets her estimate back and texts me that she's got it in hand.

Me: Ok, what's the damage (pun intended)

Her:...........it's bad

Me: *bracing for impact* what's the total, we can manage it.....

Her: $20K

Me: *gasping for air* WHAT?!

I can't get words out, I trust these guys, are they really trying to screw over my wife? There's no way

As I'm catching my breath....

Her: Oh, wait, sorry, that's $2K

Good God, woman! This is a huge difference, but I'm fairly relieved (perhaps it was a smart move on her part to make the $2k GOOD news).

Second round happened yesterday

We dropped her car off Monday night because her appointment was first thing on Tuesday morning...again, I have limited involvement as she's more than capable of handling her business

I work from home now, and she was off yesterday, so she came in my office and said she had her estimate...I had forgotten about the $20K incident at this point, so I wasn't braced at all

Me: Ok, what's the damage (I need new jokes because the pun was still intended)

Her: Ugh, I can't believe this!

Me: what's the deal?

Her: They need to change my engine!

Me: *gasping for air* WHAT?! How is that possible? Sure the car is getting older (2013 CR-V), but there's barely 100K miles on it, no evidence of major issues, surely they'd call if.....wait a minute, lemme see the estimate, plz"

Estimate: Change engine and cabin air filters