Traffic needs to be build up, this happens gradually. As stated in the thread, to help speed things up a good SMO - Social Media Optimization campaign should be run along with your SEO campaign.
So make sure Facebook page, Twitter account and Google + pages is setup for the company.
You were saying it’s an auto-repair shop, is it setup on google maps and linked with the Google Plus page? Build a following on Social Media, a number of companies I have built websites for have taken my advise and decided run a blog on the website, so that they actually have links to publish on their social media pages, if the pages are inactive than people will not like the pages.
Also local website directories can help, really depending on the directory; in Ireland I would recommend a company pay for a golden pages listing and a red book listing, as both allow for the links to the site to be added. They need to be high quality directories and not link farms, don’t go down the route of using back links from link farms.
It takes a lot of work, but you can get there in the end, quality content, regular content is a bonus, ensure that the area you are targeting is mentioned ( the address and google maps will help with this).
As for writing content, I also write content for clients, but I charge them separately for doing this, First do a Knowledge/Content Audit for the company, then follow this up with a Content Plan and then plan implementation. Also remember to plan out your SMO campaign.
If the client is unwilling to pay for any more then I would just move on to the next job tbh … I hope this helps. .