Reman is fine, if the builder knows what he's doing.
They really are a piece of cake to rebuild though. One moving part and all that.
I have no idea why a reman is so much money.
Most kits ive seen are around 150-175 $.
I've never bought a reman CT26, (I just re-sealed mine) but in my pro days I've installed tons of reman turbo's on customer cars (the VW's had big problems when they started blowing the bugs) without any excessive comebacks. Have had no issues with the rebuilt Garett on my powerstroke.
Some people claim upgrading the compressor lights the fuse on the CT26, because the shaft is thin, or whatever. They assume it must fail with the extra weight and load on the shaft.
I think the failures they see are from out of balance issues. Anyone can hog out the housing, but getting the harmonics right at 150K RPM's a bitch.
Its like any other reman part. Depends on the company. I've got crap calipers from some rebuilders, how the hell can you screw up one o-ring and a piston?
On the other side of that, there are companies marketing remanufactured aircraft turbines.