By Charlie Polston,
Automotive Customer Retention and Profitability Consultant,
BG Products, Inc.
If eyes are the window to the soul, headlights are the window to a vehicle’s preventive maintenance history.
Foggy, faded, yellowing headlights look awful and make a vehicle look old and poorly maintained, lowering the resale value.
In other words, if a car is well-maintained mechanically (on the inside) and poorly maintained cosmetically (on the outside), it appears neglected in all aspects and lowers the resale value.
That said, hazy, discolored headlights are ultimately, and most importantly, a safety issue. The faded plastic filters out the light and diminishes forward illumination, lowering the resale value.
In case you missed it, neglected headlights lower the car's resale value! The used car market has been in flux for the last couple of years, but whether it's a buyer's or a seller's market, clear, bright, looks-like-new headlights will help you sell a car faster and get more money for it.
There are over 250 million cars, pickups, SUVs, and crossovers on the road in the U.S. While new car manufacturing is down, scrappage is down even more – resulting in a net increase of vehicles on the road each year. Combine that with the average vehicle age of 12.6 years old, and you have a formula for an aging fleet with higher mileage. Therefore, service centers see more cars with “tired†headlights. And used car managers see more trade-ins and auction cars with headlight fog.
About half the cars in the U.S. spend their whole lives outside in the elements. Even those tucked away safely in a garage, carport, or parking garage still spend most of their daylight hours outside in the sun. UV rays harden, discolor, and distort plastic headlights; the deterioration happens slowly, practically unnoticed at first.
Okay, so let’s turn this issue into money. For customer-pay vehicles, since an owner sees their vehicle every day, they may not notice the gradual yellowing and fogging of the headlights nor the declining night visibility. So, ensure your service advisors look at the headlights during their walkaround (or at least pay attention as the cars enter the drive).
After they’ve dealt with the customer's primary item, checked the history, and completed the walkaround, it’s time to discuss safety issues. Headlight illumination is, first and foremost, a safety issue. When pointing out the hazy plastic of headlights, it is best to turn the lights on. The problem becomes more apparent when the lights are on.
Talking points on the drive are as follows:
Remember, headlight performance restoration is as crucial as brake pads, brake fluid, tires, seatbelts, airbags, and other safety-related services. Safely is an emotional issue. Not everyone understands the value of keeping a mechanical system maintained, but everyone understands safety!
Headlight restoration should be a standard part of the used car recon process. Your dealership would never sell an unsafe vehicle with bald tires, 1mm brake pads cutting into the rotors, or moisture-contaminated brake fluid. Therefore, you should never sell a vehicle with foggy, low-visibility headlights. And the used car department gets the added benefit of clear, bright headlights, thus enhancing the value.
Fifty years ago, headlights just provided illumination for night driving. But today, they are part of the car's overall look and aerodynamic performance – sometimes taking up over 20% of the fender or front grill. It’s common sense that the better the car looks, the more it’s worth.
Lastly, a word about quality and profitability: Don’t cut corners. Don't just buff the headlights and call it good. A cheap shortcut like this causes the UV deterioration to begin immediately, then the haze returns quickly, resulting in customer dissatisfaction.
See that your technicians:
1) Remove the discolored, foggy layers
2) Polish the lenses
3) Bond a new UV protectant to the lenses
If you retail the service for $139.95 ($100 labor and $40 parts) and pay the technician .7, you should have an ELR of $142 and a parts-to-labor ratio of 2.5:1, which is pretty impressive.
When you have safety for vehicle owners, value for the used car department, and profitability for fixed ops, everyone wins. Happy sales to you!
Charlie Polston is an automotive customer retention and profitability consultant with BG Products, Inc. Charlie has been with BG’s Fixed Operations Division for over 38 years. He has trained over 7,500 dealers, managers, and technicians – and has been a frequent workshop leader at NADA’s annual convention.