Auto Mechanic Ripoff Artists

So I'm thinking I need to take a class or something and learn how to fix my own car. Last week my alternator belt broke so I took it to the dealership to have this simple little thing fixed. I can afford the cost of it, no big. A couple of days after I get my car back I notice my turn signals aren't working so I whinge a little bit about it at work and one of my cowrokers tells me it could just be a fuse that shorted out. I go through my handbook for the car and find out where the proper fuses are only to find that the fuses are fine. So I decide I'm going to have to take the car back to the dealer, and see what's going on. I get caught up in meetings and am not able to get the car in until today. Oh and over the weekend I discover that not only are my turn signals out, so are my brake lights, tail lights and cruise control. And of course dealership repairshop is not open on weekends and I can't take it anywhere else in case the problem was something the dealership caused when they put the new belt on.

They call me not 20 minutes after I drop off the car to tell me it's a switch that shorted out in the steering column and that the cost to repair it will be $220 for parts and labour. 220 fucking dollars to fix a shorted out switch. They told me it's just a coincidence that it blew after they had my car as they didn't perform any work on the steering column.

I don't know whether to believe them or not because I don't know any better. It occurred to me to ask them if perhaps in the course of working on the alternator whether it was a possibility for the alternator to surge with electricity and maybe cause the switch to short out. He put me on hold to go ask the mechanic if that could happen and of course the mechanic said no. But he probably figures I wouldn't know any better so he could tell me anything and I'd still have to pay. I don't want to feel like that next time I have to deal with the fucking mechanics.

What I really want to do is learn about all of this, then next time I have a repair I want to play dumb and catch them lying to me. I would simply adore seeing the look on their face when I catch them out. It would be like the time when I worked in the pub in Engerland and the french staff were talking about the rest of us in french, blissfully unaware that I understood every word they said. Ahhh that was sweet.

of course it's entirely possible that the dealership is very honest and that everything they've told me is the absolute truth. My point is that I just don't know if I'm being suckered or not because I'm fairly ignorant when it comes to car repair. I feel like I've been ripped off, but I just don't know.

My kingdom for public transportation in this deadend town.