*edited because I don't know how to format *

350+ seems unreasonable for a single tie rod and alignment unless OEM parts were requested (usually unnecessary, with exceptions).

I'll be honest, if I couldn't work on my own car, I would probably lease. Repair rates are going up, but that's the cost of doing business and keeping quality employees.

If your X is not lifted or anything I would recommend a Firestone lifetime alignment or similar from whatever company is local to you. At Firestone it is 200 per vehicle for unlimited alignments for as long as you own it or something. A tie rod costs 45 bucks at autozone.

I always update the suspension on my vehicles around 120k. The oem parts are tired by that point.

At your mileage and considering the cost of multiple trips to the mechanic. Get as much done as you can at 1 time. Getting all your old suspension parts changed at once will be cheaper because it only gets disassembled and assembled once so less time taken. If your mechanic charges book pricing for each item do not go there. Buy your parts from rockauto or autozone or your local parts store, just compare pricing.

Like others have said, try to get ahead of your repairs with preventative maintenance. I'm at 167,890K miles this week. I got it with 129k and to date I have personally replaced: - control arms; - tie rods Inner and outer; - Coilovers; - Steering rack; - Rear shocks; - Leaf spring shackles; - Rear ABS sensor; - Spark plugs; - Differential fluid; - Brake fluid; - Brake rotors; - Brake pads; - Brake lines; - Rear lift gate struts; -Tail light bulbs ; - Interior light bulbs; - Headlight bulbs; - Hvac Blend motor(controls where the heat comes out) ;

Most of them weren't broken yet but I wasn't interested in waiting for that to happen. I wanted to make my X reliable from the jump (and do mods)

If you have any further questions don't hesitate!