Rear main seals do often leak, and you have to remove the engine or the transmission to fix them. On a new series Rover V8 or V6 the rear main seal is integrated into the plate shown below, in front of the flywheel at the back of the engine. Most times the transmission, torque converter, and flywheel are removed for access and yes, you should expect a $2k bill.
The reason they say "inspect" is that there are other possible leak sources in there. When you see oil leaking from the engine-transmission bell housing joint, the rear main is a likely culprit. But when in there I would change the torque converter seal too. And I would look at everything else.
If you see other leaks, or you see edgy lines or pipes, the bill can quickly move to $3k and it is not a money grab; that is the cost of fixing that leak. The question is, do you need to fix it? Rear main leaks are not usually very severe so we tend to fix them for people who don't like to see oil spots under their cars. People who don't care, live with minor leakage. It is very rare for a rear main to blow out or fail, and threaten the engine. There is not any urgency to this repair most times.
If your rear main is going drip-drip-drip at idle, you need to fix it, but otherwise, remember most service departments employ advisors who are really commission salespeople to sell service, and while the leak is undoubtedly real, the urgency is only in one's mind most of the time in this particular case
Rear mains are a problem in older standard shift cars when the engine oil leaks onto the clutch plate, but these Rovers don't have clutches and so are immune to that issue.
The engine in the photo was removed for replacement of all 3 timing chains, and the rear main was leaking a bit so it was done while out. If we were doing rear main only we'd pull transmission instead.
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