From the “control tower” of the Gaud Car System garage in Douvaine (Haute-Savoie), Christophe Gaud, glasses wedged on his nose, is busy validating the pile of invoices that have accumulated in recent days. The snow fell suddenly two days earlier: the tow trucks were called fifteen times in twenty-four hours to tow damaged cars. This December 15, 2022, the temperature has seriously dropped and a current of fresh air is felt inside the building.
Dressed in a black puffer jacket, Jean-Yves, Christophe’s brother, crosses the exhibition hall with a determined step in the direction of the workshop. In this repair center, where jokes burst out and energy overflows, three generations live side by side. A black cap screwed on the head, Paul, the son of Jean-Yves, prepares to give him an update on a vehicle dropped off the day before. On the way, Edouard, the patriarch, intercepts him to tell him about their renegotiated gas contract the day before. Founder of the company, he was joined by his two sons in the mid-1980s and by one of his grandsons in 2019. Each in his own way, they tell of their attachment to a profession that has undergone serious changes. for fifty years.
The next: the announced end in 2035 of the sale of new thermal engine vehicles in the European Union that would not use neutral fuels in terms of CO emissions2. No one in the Gaud family cares. “We have always been able to adapt and bounce back, likes to remind Edouard. Whether hybrid, electric, a car, it’s still a car, it will always have to be repaired. It hasn’t changed and it never will. » Although, he concedes, “the repair volume is likely to change, since there are not many mechanics left in an electric car”.
A “slightly crazy” project
At 76, Edouard is convinced that other solutions will be developed, such as thermal engines running on hydrogen, which will require more the intervention of a mechanic than electric models. Convinced, too, that manufacturers will find solutions to facilitate the use of this highly flammable and difficult to store gas. “The cars will evolve, and I’ve seen that for sixty years, so I’m not panicking. »
His wife, Suzanne, did not panic either in 1971, when, recently married, Edouard had the project ” a little crazy “ to buy a neighbor’s barn in Douvaine on credit to transform it into a repair shop. “I started with nothing, I worked fifteen hours a day, but it was an extraordinary adventure”, remembers the mechanic. Both from this small town of 6,600 inhabitants, located a few kilometers from the Swiss border, they are developing this company together, where professional life and family life are naturally intertwined.
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