[99LeCouch]

Wow, $1400 for that?!? That's maybe $200 in parts and a day's work.

Brakes: Cheap rotors, reasonably-priced pads. The pads do all the work, and the rotors will warp anyhow since OEM's love under-sizing front rotors on non-performance cars.

Transmission: Wally-world ATF+4, and hit up RockAuto for a filter kit. Drain the pan, then remove it, replace the filter, fill with fluid. Repeat the drain and fill in a week.

Tie rod ends: Rent the tool for the inners, get some PB Blaster or Deep Creep if they're really crusty, and have fun. Outer ends go bad more than inners, so do the outers first. Good time to do the brakes since they're in the way otherwise.

Adjusting rear brakes: If you can get off the drums, do so, and put some anti-seize onto the point the shoes contact the backing plate. Otherwise just put your car in reverse (in a clear, empty parking lot), and do few hard stops. This will activate the self-adjusters in the drum brakes, if your Neon has these.