It is enough to read the economic section of any daily national or local newspaper, or listen to one of the many television or radio newscasts to understand how contradictory the news is regarding the economic downturn that hit (and is hitting) all of the countries in the world.
In regards to Italy, there are those who talk about a very negative moment that is already behind us and those who warn us that the worst is yet to come; there are those that say that they can start to catch a glimpse of calmness and those that show us that hundreds of thousands of people are destined to lose their jobs; there are small and big businesses that collapse in difficulty and others that seem to not have had problems at all.

To us, this seemed like the right moment to try and understand how much the independent auto repair industry has been hit by the economy, how much they have been struggling, and which after-effect they left.

To have a clear picture that is as real as possible, we aren't obligated to listen to some wisecrack remarks from occasional "bar meetings". Instead, we entered by telephone in many workshops small and large, to listen to the live voices of whom, from the other end of the line, told us about the current situation, and explained to us how they are living in this particular moment. This is how we established Zago Info "Tell me about yourself" interviews; we aimed a series of questions to a highly-represented set of auto repairers and then collected their answers. Here are the results of our work.

Has the economic downturn hit your business in some way?
After the initial wavering, the majority of the interviewees admitted that, "yes, the economic downturn is felt in regards to the fact that my clients became more pretentious compared to the past, they are informed about the work to be performed, they ask for estimates, and they are less inclined to accept the advice to substitute a part unless it is absolutely necessary." Others say that "the fixed costs have raised, as well as the fiscal pressure, to the detriment of my margin." Almost all of the interviewees, ascertained that there wasn't a tax official on the other end (!), admitted anyway that, aside from some occasional moments, work is going well, there are still appointments, and the clients are coming back. 

The families certainly have less money to spend or, better yet, they're spending with more forethought on things that are more important for the family and the house. 

That which seems to us to have been said is this: nothing particularly new changed compared to the past; also before the so-called crisis, the motorist had to be conquered and maintained through scrupulous and honest work knowing that the clients, always more updated and perhaps with less money in their pockets, are looking to save on car maintenance as well as on purchases of other basic necessities or non-essentials. 

Are you adopting new initiatives to fight in this difficult moment?
To this question, the majority of interviewees answered negatively which signifies that, after all, they didn't have time to think of "new ideas" to propose to a potential client since their time was dedicated, just as before the economic downturn, to workshop operations.
This is not always a positive thing and we would like to give the example of the engine that loses efficiency kilometer after kilometer deteriorating slowly without its owner noticing until it suddenly turns up broken; this happens to our everyday work where the rules change slowly but relentlessly. 

How do you realize these changes before it's too late?
There are fortunately many changes being engineered to bring added value to our work: a new line of revisions, an acceleration of proposals for additional guarantees, new tools for rewarding customer loyalty, signing of contracts that finance clients with necessities to have important work done on their car, and the utilisation of telephone text messages as reminders of expiration dates or suggest promotional initiatives. This is reported from several interviewees.

All of the governors, from whatever party they're part of, seem to only help manufacturers with the now famous and recurrent incentives. What is your opinion?
"It is absolutely true and it seems like only the big companies are in difficulty and that the workers are only on one side. The truth is that politics controls everything and our little businesses are forgotten by everyone; they only notice us when we have to pay taxes then, when those moments pass, they all return to the oblivion. On the other hand, they are "punishments" that we deserve for the lack of movement which is hurting our industry.
That being said, we deduce that independent auto repairers are barely or not at all represented by the branches that count. 

What was the answer from your Association in regards to the economic downturn?
"There were absolutely no answers: we know that the Association exists only in times when we have to renew our membership or in some meetings which just waste time or better yet, make us waste time.

We are tired of of blah-blah, we want concrete facts. 

The associations probably care for the interests of big businesses, those which you hear about in the newspapers; we are small, and for the associations we are only a millstone round their neck".
Then, without exception, they seem to affirm a big truth: "the fault of all this is only ours and nobody elses.
In all these years, we have never been able to make a team, to organise, to try and find a real representative in our category, someone who could protect our interests. We are too immersed in our work but we are also jealous and envious of the owner of the workshop in the town near ours. A collaboration between us doesn't exist and this is bad because we have to work with only our strengths while a union between us could be a push to better our establishments.
This is the pure truth".
We need to acknowledge that on this point there was an absolute uniformity of answers.

But will someone be ready to become the real representative of the category, perhaps simply at the provincial level?
We close this page addressing all of you with another invitation to intervene on arguments such as this sending your comments, suggestions, and your points of view that don't neccessarily have to  be the same as ours. We're certain that this could contribute to having a more clear vision of the problems in the auto repair sector. The quarterly ZAGO Info page is run by us but addressed to all of you who are free to be not only readers but also to partake in this section.