With modern fuel management systems, spark plugs last a long damn time. If the spark plugs are so bad that it causes a no-start, you would be able to see how bad they are and the car would run like absolute crap leading up to it. I believe that vehicle has Coil on Plugs, which means that every plug has it's own little coil. I believe he said they tried to sell him a set of wires as well? THERE ARE NO SPARK PLUG WIRES ON A COIL ON PLUG SYSTEM. The coils sit directly on top of the plugs and there is a rubber boot that rests on the plug. I've worked on cars with 300k miles that never needed a new coil. Usually when they go bad it's because the boot tore and the spark is being shorted, or the plastic, on top is cracked and the innards are getting corroded.
When Phil first described what his symptoms were (badly of course) my first guess was, battery or fuel pump went out. Battery was the most likely since it's infinitely more common. ANother guess would be that they simply ran out of gas. I have seen this at least twice in my life. Someone drives their car on E. It runs completely fine, park it somewhere with just a TEENY bit of an incline and it doesn't start up.
I've looked at his invoice and the numbers are weird. Universally, an oil change pays .3 hours. You should be able to determine their hourly rate with that, but they charged like $5 bucks for the oil change. They charged him a $20 core charge for a battery replaced in the shop? That's money you get back when you return your old battery. Computerized engine analysis? You mean OBDII scan? But they did that already for free...it's labelled as code scan Dashboard light, and if you have a no start condition, you're going to have codes and almost none of them will actually help you. The fuel induction cleaning is a common grift, I've even done a few after people have asked for them. I never recommended them though. Corrosion protection service is another grift unless your battery posts are covered in that nasty fuzz. Even then, you can do that yourself. If they are using standard labor op times then that would mean that they are charging about $130 and hour, which is also pretty standard.
Phil did what he always does when he makes a purchase. He let the salesman pile on extras, when he could have paid a couple hundred bucks and got his wife to work that day. Even the tow was unnecessary, if he knew the most basic things about cars, and he had a friend who could jump it for him.
If this were me in that situation, I send Kat to work in an Uber, replace the battery myself and spend the other grand on Hogan Jpeg pulls.
