Appreciate the feedback everyone.
The car is a 2015 Honda Civic. My son wrecked the car - totaled it actually - last November. The front end was a total mess. But my son contacted a friend of a friend that used to own an auto shop and operates a some kind of auto repair service out of his yard in Alvin and was he was able to get the car running again for a good guy deal (around $3K) - the car didn't look new/restored, but it worked.
I'm assuming that the transmission failure 2 days ago is related to the November damage but I don't know shit - I'm just speculating that something didn't quite get addressed (or addressed correctly) when the car was repaired at that time.
I don't have a written estimate in hand from the auto shop, so I'm not sure what exactly is their justification for the quote. I just got the bottom line number over the phone from my son. I hope to get a copy of a written estimate today.
I've also called a local transmission shop to get a ballpark estimate on rebuilding a transmission for that model car.
Separately, I found out that there are a number of salvage yards around that will give cash offers for a car if I send them photos of the vehicle. They will send a tow truck to pick it up. Anyone ever do this? The car has practically new tires (only ~5 months old) and was in decent shape as far as salvageable parts go, so extracting some value from the car to put towards a replacement used car would help my son tremendously.