Having a mechanical workshop was, years ago, a business where work was never missing because, as they say, “all cars were found”, regardless of the brand or model. Now, after the doors of many workshops, stories of personal sacrifice are hidden, in which self -employed have had to leave a lot behind to be able to carry out their business.
This is shown by several mechanics on the YouTube channel of Eric Ponce, which has entered this trade to understand how a key sector for millions of drivers is supported. All share the same vision: initial investments that can exceed 200,000 euros, endless hours of work and fiscal pressure that many consider “suffocating.” As one of the interviewees confesses: “If you want to open something with face and eyes, you can even ruin.”
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“Every time an uncle comes with a folder I get a sablazo of 3,000 euros,” denounces an owner, who remembers how he had to rehipote his home to keep the workshop open. The absence of public aid contrasts with the ease with which, as they criticize, other businesses without a license operate with hardly any controls. “Here he drowns the small business,” laments another interviewee, who has also worked abroad and ensures that in countries like Germany “it is much easier to undertake.”
Personal sacrifices
One of the hardest and “emotional” aspects of the report is the personal cost of maintaining a workshop. With working days of 12 and 14 hours, with Saturdays and Sundays included, they become routine for many of the interviewees. “Look what time is and I start at 6 in the morning every day, say every day. Days of arriving at 10, 10:30, one night until after 10:30 at night, getting home,” explains one of the protagonists, not being the only one.
“I regret not having been with my family. I have had two children and the loss of fatherhood was two days,” confesses a mechanic, visibly excited.
Defaults and delinquency
Economic uncertainty is one of the biggest slabs for workshops in Spain. Several mechanics agree that, for months, they had to hold the business with their own money. “At the beginning we had to put between 3,000 and 4,000 euros every month, because here did not even have the Tato,” acknowledges one of the interviewees, reflecting how difficult it is to start and maintain the activity without a solid customer base.
The problem is not only of initial investment, but also of delinquency. Many professionals denounce that customers leave without paying, and that justice does not offer them protection. “I have complaints on people who owe me 20,000 euros and they are smiling here, as if nothing,” explains one of the testimonies with resignation. As they report, the workshops end up trapped in a vicious circle of unpaid invoices, debts with providers and tax charges that are not reduced even if they do not enter income.
Some have even lived extreme experiences, with confrontations and threats that go beyond the economic level. “They didn’t want to pay and started such … and already my father. We had a judgment and all the roll,” recalls another mechanic, who admits that at certain times the situation came to affect his family. “There are no laws here to force these people to pay this money,” he says, convinced that the lack of control and legal guarantees is one of the main problems for the survival of the workshops.
Low and high taxes
One of the most repeated topics by the interviewed mechanics is the difficulty in hiring personnel in a sector where labor costs are prohibitive. “You can’t hire a kid today, it supposes 3,000 euros a month,” complains one of them. The paradox is evident, because while the worker receives just half in net salary, the rest evaporates in social insurance and taxes. “You pay 1,500 to the person and 500 insurance, because I would change the thing. But no, you pay much more for sure and all taxes than what you give to the person.”
This fiscal burden not only affects hiring, but also the owners of the workshops. “The fiscal pressure we have here in Spain is huge, I pay the same with an employee as SAT with 7,000,” says one of the protagonists.
The immediate consequence is the lack of generational relief. Young people do not find attractive, an office where remuneration does not compensate for effort. “There are no qualified personnel for automobile repair, there is no,” they regret. In the eyes of the mechanics, the equation is simple: salaries that do not take off, excessive taxes and a constant bureaucracy that “crosses you, creates you” every time you try to grow.
Is it profitable to have a workshop in the middle of the electric car?
The response of the mechanics is ambivalent, because, you can earn money, but at the expense of a huge personal sacrifice and with the constant threat of the new mobility. “If you do things moderately, surely you can live from a workshop,” acknowledges one of them. However, they warn that the sector is increasingly hard: “Businesses are not alone, you have to put a lot of coal.”
The electric car is, for many, the greatest reason for uncertainty. Most workshops are not prepared to face their technology and openly recognize it: “For electric vehicles we are not prepared. We can make tires, brakes, body … but nothing more.” In addition, they consider that the current model is not sustainable for customers or professionals. “The electric is not what they have sold us. They are really killing us because this is not a future.”
This perception conditions any investment in the medium and long term. The mechanics say that they would not risk today to set up a new business from scratch in the absence of clarity on the course of the sector. “If I had to invest a thousand thousand euros in this, it would have to see it very clear and be very sure that I will succeed, if not, I don’t know.” Fear is clear: that the transition to the electric end is the tip for workshops that already survive the limit.