A friend got insured on my car for a trip and managed to notice that the engine was overheating only after the engine had lost power and the power steering had gone, he pulled over to the side of the road where the car was collected by theAA and taken to a garage ~10miles outside of Norwich.



The garage are a private/family garage that I'd been told were good by a friend, but I didn't have much choice in the matter.



A mechanic has priced up the job and it's come in at £956 + VAT (£516 for parts and £440 for labour @ £40/hour) as he believes a lot needs replacing, the list I got includes:

• Head Gasket Set
• New Radiator
• Cam Belt Replacement
• New Thermostat
• New Oil Filter
• Possible Head skimming
• Waste Disposal

As you can probably tell I am a complete novice with cars. That list probably missed a few of the smaller things he mentioned. The best idea that I can get for what happened is that the radiator was leaking, lost fluid but wasn't noticed/alerted to the driver, then the engine has no coolant and overheats and cripples the parts?



Any thoughts on prices and advice would be appreciated. I bought the car around 6 months ago with 60,000 miles on it and have already replaced the clutch and a wheel bearing (that was probably botched by a garage doing a service).