Is Lighting Unprofitable for You?

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Is selling automotive lighting unprofitable for you?

By James Chevrette

I know many dealers who say upgrading headlights and fog lights is not worth a dealer’s time; there is no money in it. So, we decided to dig deeper into this category.

I called three Mobile Electronics magazine’s Top 12 reatilers, and the response was the same. “If the customer asks us to, or if we are already working on the vehicle; then we will do it. We only do 1 to 2 sets a month.”

Many retailers have told me of nightmare installs where they had to remove the bumper to change the headlights, and they will never do it again. Retailers become gun shy of lighting after experiences like this. But are we ignoring an industry that is 100 times larger than car audio?

Columbus Car Audio, OH has a different view.  Jayson Cook said “I honestly don’t know how dealers expect to have a profitable experience with this category if they don’t have All Data or ProDemand software. These tools help you quote the hours needed to make a headlight replacement profitable.” He used the example of a Ford F-150 20xx. The reference guides say the job takes 1.8 hours. “Then I quote 1.8 hours of labor.  It gets you close enough to be profitable. If it says 3.5 hours, I might just stay away from the vehicle.”

Lucas Lighting handles the issue by offering a free Installation Rating data base. If you search for a bulb on its website, the ever-growing database will give you a rating of 1-5 (1 =easily accessible and 5= removal of the bumper required), as guidelines).  VP Steve Rodgers talked about using this tool while working on other aspects of the vehicle, for example remote starters. While the car is in the installation bay getting a remote start, look up the headlight difficulty, this way you don’t back yourself into a corner. But the car is already in the bay, let’s try and maximize the opportunity.

Rodgers added, “We all have a family member that won’t drive after dark or will hurry home from an event, so they don’t have to drive in the dark. What if we could give them their freedom back?”

A lot of lighting manufacturers preach ideas of light distance, lumens and or brightness etc., but this was the first time I heard a pitch using a relatable human angle to selling lighting.

Jason Anderson of Heise lighting (Metra) says its important to carry a range of products so the salesman can upsell.

Generally, it boils down to investing in this category properly, not just taking a shotgun approach. If this category isn’t profitable for you, maybe it is time to approach it differently.

Photo: Vecteezy

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7 Comments

  1. Often what kills your profit margin is having to warranty that fails and the labor to R&R is 3 hours. Before I left my last store I was working on a plan that going to offer only a 1 to 2 year labor warranty.

    Almost never. would we instal customer supplied product. In the rare occasion we it was written on the customer’s invoice that there was no labor warranty.

  2. Another profit maker is using a bulb that is not all over the internet. F1RST Automotive Products has 4 series of lifetime warranty bulbs that are dealer only and no online sales. They also offer a 1 year warranty budget bulb that is still great quality. In mini bulbs they have the X series with a 3 year warranty and most manufacturers don’t warranty mini bulbs because they typically are rated in hours. To top things off They make the best projector bulb on the market. f1-products.com

  3. Everybody doing F-150 videos on YouTube are WRONG. You do not need to remove the front grill and headlight housings to do bulbs. If you read the owners manual for the trucks, all you have to do is turn the steering wheel to one side, remove 2-3 7mm screws in the fender linerin front of the tire, peel it back and you have access to the high and low beams. You can do all 6 lights in an F-150 in 30 minutes.

  4. We sell led bulbs and they are very profitable for us. With a working user friendly display they sell themselves. We quote labor per vehicle. We have clients drop $800 to $1000 for full LED replacement and in older cars it’s a snap! Check out some lighting displayed offered by company’s like 5 AXIS, It may be worth your while.

  5. At Best Buy we use Alldata and it allows us to quote accordingly from there. It has the time standard fort 1/2 bulbs, and also operational instructions for if the bumper needs to come off/ etc. I can’t imagine jumping in blind on something like that then getting socked with a bumper car when you quoted $50 for install or something.

  6. All great points. Another key consideration is the product itself. While there are countless overseas brands available online, we need a lighting company that offers more than just products. They should provide us with profitable pricing backed by price protection, reliable technical support for fitment, and a solid warranty program. Additionally, they should offer labor and time rates to support their resellers. The products must ensure proper fitment without requiring modifications to the weather boot or makeshift solutions to secure the bulb in place.

  7. Agree but it’s a lot of the 1 man shops that have problems if there doing a vehicle can’t take time to do a light install on bumper type vehicle & lot of these customers want it done know. Maybe this would be a great class for knowledge fest for dealers by an lighting company to host

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