Learn French: Il refuse de faire réparer la voiture, même par le garagiste. - He refuses to have the car repaired, even by the mechanic.

Here, même acts as an invariable adverb meaning "even". As an adverb, it is placed immediately before the exact word or phrase it emphasizes—in this case, the prepositional phrase par le garagiste (by the mechanic).

How would the sentence change if we wanted to use the emphatic lui-même instead?

If you wanted to emphasize "himself", the focus of the sentence would shift and you would likely drop the causative faire. You would say Il refuse de réparer la voiture lui-même (He refuses to repair the car himself). In our current sentence, the adverbial même means "even", emphasizing the extreme nature of his refusal.

Why do we need faire before réparer?

This uses the causative construction (faire + infinitive), which expresses having someone else do a task for you. Il refuse de faire réparer la voiture means he refuses to have the car repaired by a professional. Without faire, it would mean he refuses to do the manual labor himself.

Why is the preposition de used after refuse?

The verb refuser requires the preposition de when it is followed by an infinitive verb. This is a fixed pattern you simply have to memorize: refuser de faire quelque chose (to refuse to do something).