A mechanic tried to charge me $8,000 for a “broken engine”—but what I took out of my purse made him beg me to rip up the bill.

touched the estimate. “You wrote ‘engine replacement required.’ What test supports that?”

Kyle cleared his throat. “The scan showed a misfire.”

“A misfire isn’t a compression test.”

“It can point to internal damage.”

“Did you run the engine?”

He hesitated. “Not long enough to record anything.”

Rebecca looked through the glass at my car.

“Did you test all continue reading …