I'm sorry to bother you all with such a stupid question, but recently while driving it seems that whenever I hit a bump my car bounces, and in the past it used to be so smooth when hitting bumps. Today I opened my trunk, and just a little pressure down on it, and the car sinks, and rises when you let go. So, granted I have zero car knowledge, I think it's the shocks. What am I looking at price wise to repair this? Is it something that can be done on my own easily?

On a side note, I'm taking my car to a collision specialist tomorrow to get some sheet metal welded in place. The rear driver's side quarter panel was rusted all the way through. I'm going to talk to them, and see how much they'll charge to get the whole vehicle prepared for paint.

Shocks themselves aren't too expensive, I'm not sure what the average charge of having it done is, however.

Supposedly, the "push down" shock test is passed if the car bounces back up after you push it down, but not excessively. The problem is that it only tells you when your shocks are total shit, not halfway shit. My car doesn't ride nearly as smooth as I think it should either, but it passes the push down test. I think the previous owner replaced the shocks with stiff cheapos.

Additionally, what kind of car do you have?

The only stupid question is one that isn't asked.

If you have a RWD Caddy, then rockauto.com has the air shocks you need. They are AC Delco, come in pairs, and are quite inexpensive. About 80 bucks for the pair, if I remember correctly.