The small shop actually charged me $580 with tax. He said he was surprised to see the hours guide give him over 6 hours. I asked if he would keep track of his time and help me out if it came in a lot less than 6 hours, he said yes.
I originally thought it was high, but the only reference I had was my 99 GMC Sierra 1500. I did those myself and it was about as easy a job as you could hope for, only a few leisurely hours. No struts or integrated springs. I pulled a front and rear wheel off the Passat, and after looking it over (and trying to find a good Youtube procedure, which by the way I could not) I decided I would be in over my head. Sounds like $580 maybe wasn't a bargain but at least was fair.
BTW I went with Bilstein OE. No noticeable change in ride from original VW shocks, still rides awesome. I'm on my 2nd set of Continental Eco Plus rear tires since buying the car with 72,000 miles (what came on the car, then at 76,000 miles I swapped front to back and put used Michelins on the front). Rear tires had faint howling noise when I bought car. I swapped front to back at 76,000 miles, howling went away, but now at 90,000 miles it came back.
Howling is actually not that big a deal, only hear it on really smooth roads, and it is faint. But I just want to fix root cause before investing in new tires.
So... new shocks, 5,000 mile rotation, and alignments every 6 or 12 months (I paid for lifetime alignment at Tires Plus) is the plan going forward. I'll probably put the front tires on the rear now and wait another 10,000 - 15,000 miles (6-9 months for me) to make sure the problem is fixed before investing in new tires.
Anyone having similar problems as above, I'd love to hear about it!