#116 - Do It Yourself

Adam Pawel Pietruszewski
4 days ago
2 min read

Resilience in a shrinking world will depend on business models that reduce material footprint per person. Neo Garage is one of them.

This Friday I went with Bartek to service our cars. Yes, you can do it yourself in Warsaw. Neo Garage rents professional service stations equipped with auto lifts. You can rent there specialised tools, they also have a nice shop with equipment for car mechanics. The staff is very friendly and can advice in case you have doubts - they say it is a passion business made of love for automotive.

Of course, you need certain level of knowledge - someone with a tinkering mindset comes in very handy. Bartek is therefore a head of our endeavour - I served as his assistant — engineering work has never been my strongest side, and it has always been his advantage. Two cars, 1,5 hours of work, and an amazing feeling of achievement. It feels so good to find out that changing oil and filters in a car is not a magic, and even I can do this🙂

According to the European Environment Agency an average age of the passenger car in EU has increased to 12,3 years in 2022 from 10,9 in 2013 [1]. This would be great as long as as the sales of new cars dropped, which was not the case, at least not in this period. But it indicates a positive circular trend - repair / refurbish / use as long as possible are the words circular economies love. The best car is the one you use long and moderately.

Keeping car longer opens up a range of business opportunities. Neo Garage offers self-service stations but they also rent part of their space to other companies, which provide more advanced options, such as detailing, tuning, specialised repairs. Selling fewer new cars impacts production plants, but the economy as a whole can fill the gaps by extending the offering for the owners of older vehicles.

Poland is among the countries with the highest share - 23 percent - of cars older than 20 years. Not long ago it was mocked as car cemetery of Europe but in the shrinking world replacing cars instead of taking care of those already in use is not resilient. Places like Poland have a strong 'repair, not replace' culture, this mindset is at the core of circular economy and resilient thinking.

Neo Garage is just one example. But in a shrinking world, the repair economy may become as important as the production economy. The future may belong not to those who sell more things, but to those who help us use what we already have — longer, smarter, and better.