ReportingSeb’Auto, in Saint-Léger-de-Montbrillais (Vienne), is, like some 15,000 independent garage owners in France, at the forefront of the upheaval in the automotive market: diesel in free fall, hybrids and electrics on the rise , opportunities booming. The boss and his employees must adapt to survive.
All that wouldn’t happen if people washed their cars properly, the old-fashioned way – lukewarm water, soap, elbow grease. But no, they prefer the pressure washer. “By force, the paints become matt, and you have to polish”, fulminates Sébastien Eveillard. It’s Monday and, since 7:30 a.m., polisher in hand, the owner of the Seb’Auto garage in Saint-Léger-de-Montbrillais (Vienne), is striving to restore its initial shine to a white Citroën Berlingo. An opportunity he has just sold. “Between three phone calls and two shits, if I’m finished tonight, it will be good”, he says, taking a few steps back for an express quality check.
Beside him, bent over suffering engines, Franck, 36, and Valentin, 21, do not pretend either. The two mechanics are on the bridge until 5 p.m. sharp, while Ewenn, 17, the apprentice nicknamed “Popeye” because he will have to binge on spinach before being able to pull out a gearbox alone as a big one, is underway. Franck is fighting with a Peugeot 207 SW 1.6 HDi (cylinder head gasket to be changed), Valentin with an Audi A4 TDi (distribution to be redone). Other vehicles wait, hoods wide open, as resigned as the patients of a dental surgeon.
It’s been four years since Sébastien Eveillard, 42 spring, took over this garage. A metal cube placed flush with the D347, between Montreuil-Bellay (Maine-et-Loire), to the west, and Loudun (Vienne), to the east. At the crossroads of four departments (Vienne, Maine-et-Loire, Indre-et-Loire, Deux-Sèvres) and three regions (Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Pays de la Loire, Center-Val de Loire). Heavy traffic. Fantasia of decibels. The rumor of the automobile is to the mechanic what the ocean surf is to the fisherman: a song of hope. Between the second-hand trade and the maintenance of diesels, we don’t have too much to complain about. And yet everything to be feared.
The Climate and Resilience Law (strengthening of low-emission mobility zones, end of the sale of the most polluting cars, strengthening of public transport) and the COP26, despite the timidity of the final agreement, have gone through this. Old vehicles have lead in the fenders, and the venerable Rudolph Diesel process has a foot in the manhole.
Here, in full ZRR (rural revitalization zone), as they say in Paris to evoke these campaigns “Recognized as socio-economically fragile”, that’s three quarters of the business. “New cars are very expensive, and running on diesel remains economical”, underlines the boss of Seb’Auto.
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