Marinucci: Rising vehicle age means opportunity

Older vehicles always have been and continue to be sensible sales opportunities for savvy automotive service providers.

Some tire dealers and service shop operators may have overlooked these prospects because they underestimated motorists' willingness to invest in tires, maintenance and/or repairs.

Many bosses I speak to would welcome every profitable job they can get their hands on. They emphasize that each and every sale matters in today's cutthroat marketplace.

Instead of shunning owners of older vehicles, readers should seize every opportunity to engage them.

I do not recommend any intense, heavy-handed sales pitches, but I urge readers to politely reassure these motorists that your technicians understand the needs of older, higher-mileage machines.

Your techs routinely maintain and repair older vehicles cost-effectively. They spend the customer's money wisely whether the vehicle is newer or older.

Never assume that sales prospects understand this point — or have heard it expressed convincingly.

Let me provide additional perspective on the topic. According to recent data from S&P Global Mobility, the average age of light vehicles reached 12.2 years in 2022.

What's more, the average age of vehicles on the road increased for the fifth straight year.

An average of 12.2 years old means that a percentage of the motoring public continues driving some relatively old vehicles.

Admittedly, older vehicles in the country's Rust Belt do not last as those in the Sun Belt do. Nonetheless, the 12-year average — not to mention the upward trend in vehicle age — is difficult to ignore.

Some motorists keep older vehicles simply because they own and like them. All things considered, these motorists prefer to avoid a fresh round of car payments.

Other motorists certainly hanker for newer, spiffier transportation, but holding the line on already-tight budgets means driving their existing machines as long as practically possible.

I have emphasized in previous columns that older, higher-mileage vehicles eventually need tires, maintenance and repairs. Somewhere within your market area, an auto service provider is going to do the work.

Shouldn't your tire dealership or service shop nab these sales?

Keep these points in mind as you evaluate service sales opportunities on older, higher-mileage vehicles.

For one thing, what is obvious to one consumer is not obvious to all. Clearly promote an obvious point: Your tire dealership or service shop welcomes newer as well as older vehicles.

Whether the odometer on an older car shows high miles or low miles, your techs will keep the engine purring for years to come. Your business offers proven, as well as cost-effective, maintenance plans for today's budget-minded motorists.

Service writers, service managers and techs alike should approach every older vehicle cautiously. For one thing, older vehicles tend to have more than one problem present at the same time.

For another, reassure the owner that this is not a shameless hustle of some kind. Instead, the risk of encountering more than one problem is just the law of averages at work.

Now, suppose your techs identify several areas of a vehicle = that require maintenance and/or repairs. Always be cool. Avoid sounding like these conditions are catastrophic — as opposed to routine revelations on an older, higher-mileage machine.

Based on my field experience, the results of techs' vehicle inspections are only as scary as they make them sound. Many motorists simply react as emotionally as service personnel do.

Where appropriate, document the tech's findings by taking cellphone pictures and downloading those — and/or videos — to a customer file in the service writer's PC.

Where necessary, email "documentary" pictures and videos to vehicle owners. The old adage tells us that seeing is believing — a theme that applies to selling tires and service.

All too often, I encounter the same blunder I witnessed back in the early 1970s. A tech patiently and accurately identifies multiple needs on an older, higher-mileage vehicle. For all intents and purposes, this is a solid machine that needs routine repairs.

For the sake of discussion, suppose that the tech and service writer both perform their chores coolly and professionally. The service writer prepares an accurate estimate of the required parts and labor.

However, the vehicle owner perceives the estimate to be an unwieldy amount. For the moment, the motorist cannot justify this large bill.

I have watched car owners react to the lump-sum estimate by deciding to park the car, sell it or trade it.

As I have stressed in previous columns, the problems the tech identified rarely have to be fixed simultaneously.

Instead, savvy service personnel can prioritize the work, scheduling the most-needy repair first and so forth. This may spread the required work over several visits thereby defraying the costs into manageable chunks.

Whereas prioritizing work is a valuable sales technique for many job estimates, it may be particularly useful when the vehicle is older.

Accommodating a motorist with an older vehicle may not be as difficult as some readers think. Putting yourself in the prospects' shoes and treating them the way you prefer to be treated may be the key to success.