I've been quoted £450 to have my air con condenser replaced, they said they'll have to take the front end off and that the condenser itself will be £140. (This is a 1.9tdi MK2 Fabia estate btw) 

 

Does this seem ok? It seems to be within other quotes I've seen people get. 

 

I'm hesitating as I'm £4k into the car already and only had it since April 21, it's on 150k miles now. Have been thinking about trying to sell it on and getting an Avensis estate with around 100k miles

Yes the front end has to come off, it's a lot of labour.

Depends on what you mean by "front end has to come off", I did mine   on my MK2 before it was written off by an uninsured driver, yes you have to take the front bumper off and under tray you have to remove the cooling fan,  and a few connections but it is doable my AC gas was gone anyway so no need to de-gas system, the condenser/rad can be wiggled out from the front of the radiator and the top cross panel at an angle takes a minute or so but is possable ,new one cost me £120 plus when finished a re-gas £50, the newer models have different gas now and is more expensive but a decent AC garage should not charge the higher price for the older type gas, sorry if this is no help but sometimes you think some jobs are garage only but you can do them yourself if you take your time