Need my hero to have a car he can't start for several hours (without going to a mechanic)

I've looked through several Car Trouble threads looking for a way to do this, but they all have a hero who /wants/ to temporarily disable a car.
In my story, the hero wants to drive the car asap, but the evil author wants to trap him in a house with the villains for several hours before he drives off.

The only car around is an old SUV that won't start. It's been sitting in a garage for 4-5 months. There's a battery charger available, so he charges it up. Various Google experts tell me doing this can take several hours. That would be ideal for my plot -- but from my Google research it sounds like charging a battery for hours is what you do when you want a properly charged battery. In this scenario, all he wants to do is drive the car to the rendezvous before sunset. He doesn't care if the car never starts again. Is it still plausible to have to charge the battery for several hours?

If not, is there something else that can be wrong with the car that he could fix without going to a mechanic? It's not been sabotaged in any way. Its original owner died and no one's started it in months.

Anyone?

hopefully,
Evelyn

This sounds very encouraging. Sounds like I can have hero stuck charging the car and then take some more time messing about with the air intake and starting fluid. That should keep him stuck in the house Dealing With Plot Complications for several hours. Excellent! (rubs hands together and cackles evilly )

Thank you!