Auto Dealership Lighting: The Short Answer
Auto dealership lighting has to do four jobs at once: pull customers off the street, present inventory accurately, give service technicians enough light to do precision work, and keep energy costs in check.
The right system handles all four. The wrong system, or an aging one, quietly hurts every one of them.
Most dealerships fall into one of two camps. Either you are still running metal halide, high pressure sodium, or fluorescent fixtures that were never efficient to begin with. Or you upgraded to LED five to seven years ago and the fixtures have quietly dropped to 70% of their original output (the industry calls this L70 degradation).
Either way, the symptoms are the same: inventory that looks duller than it should, service bays where techs miss what they used to catch, and energy bills that are higher than they need to be.
The seven best practices below are the ones FSG applies on every dealership lighting project, from a single-location store to multi-state automotive groups. They cover the four zones that matter (signage, showroom, lot, service) and the two systems that tie them together (controls and LED).
Auto Dealership Lighting: It’s More Than Just A Lot
Most folks think about car dealerships and see in their mind a parking lot full of beautiful new cars and trucks. While the front lot may be the focus of the dealership’s first impression, there are other areas at an auto dealership with very specific and important lighting needs.
At most auto dealerships, facility managers are tasked with providing both sufficient and efficient lighting for the following areas:
- Building and Marquee Signage
- Front Line / Roadside Displays
- New Car Lot
- Used Car Lot
- Guest Parking Area
- Indoor Showroom
- Interior Office Spaces
- Service Bays
- Building Exterior
Clear, bright light that attracts and maintains excellent impressions in each of these areas is critical for auto dealership facility managers.
Auto Dealership Lighting Requirements by Zone
Different parts of a dealership have different lighting jobs, and they have different specs. The table below shows the targets FSG designs to, based on IES recommendations and what actually performs in the field across our automotive lighting projects.
FSG Field Standards
Recommended Light Levels by Dealership Zone
| Zone | Footcandles | CRI | Color Temp | Typical Fixture |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indoor Showroom | 75–100 fc | 90+ | 4000K–5000K | Linear LED, track, recessed downlights |
| Front Line Display | 50–70 fc | 80+ | 5000K | LED area lights, shoebox fixtures |
| New & Used Car Lot | 30–45 fc | 70+ | 4000K–5000K | LED shoebox on 25–40 ft poles |
| Perimeter & Guest Parking | 20–25 fc | 70+ | 4000K–5000K | LED area lights, wall packs |
| Service Bays | 85–100 fc | 80+ | 4000K–5000K | LED high bays, linear strips |
| Customer Lounge & Office | 30–50 fc | 80+ | 3500K–4000K | LED troffers, downlights |
| Building & Marquee Signs | N/A | N/A | 5000K–6500K | LED sign modules, channel letter LEDs |
Beginning With An End In Mind
Every lighting decision an auto dealership makes should begin with an understanding that the goal of the project is to entice potential customers to come to the dealership and see the cars for themselves.
Once the customer is on the lot, the next goal is to keep him or her engaged, looking, thinking, talking, questioning, and ultimately making a decision to buy a car or truck. Effective lighting can help with this.
Consider for a moment how the automobile showroom is more important than ever when it comes to imparting a brand message. In simpler times, all a dealership needed was a sign and a brand logo and a few brochures, maybe an ad in the local newspaper.
These days, with so much information available to consumers online, the physical dealership has to do more to deliver the unique brand message customers see on TV and in digital advertising.
The most successful dealerships execute smart, strategic lighting choices in the showroom to deliver the types of presentations that match the brand messaging customers see across a variety of media platforms.
7 Best Lighting Practices for Auto Dealership Lighting
With so many factors to consider, auto dealership facility managers adhere to the following best lighting practices to ensure they attract customers and keep them engaged long enough to complete a transaction.
1. Signage
Depending on its location, an automobile dealership’s sign can be seen at a great distance, maybe even miles away. When that sign is bright and clean, potential customers see the dealership as conscientious, serious, and open for business right now. The sign has to be right, all the time.
2. Brilliant Outdoor Lighting
The most successful auto dealerships can bring certain aspects of the showroom out onto the lot where customers routinely begin their visit.
Truly phenomenal outdoor lighting (also known as car dealership parking lot lighting) delivers an element of excitement for customers interested in viewing the latest offerings in the best possible circumstances. Customers are drawn to well-lit dealerships where every car shines like a luxury vehicle.
Importantly, people also feel safer at night when they visit a dealership that’s fully illuminated and welcoming.
3. Not Too Bright, Not Too Dim
Dealerships playing at the top of their lighting game understand that the goal is to strike the perfect balance between lighting that is too bright or not quite bright enough. Professional lighting suppliers like FSG understand how to deliver lighting at just the right level.
Most importantly to this effort, the goal should be to deliver uniform lighting levels across a lighting application. Customers are more likely to stick around and shop when there are no dim zones or areas where the light is suddenly much brighter.
4. Accent and Showroom Lighting
The most successful dealerships know the value of highlighting special cars or trucks that are in limited supply or that stand out from the other vehicles on display. For these special units, accent lighting is critical.
Strategically placed accent lighting contrasts with ambient light to impart an extra level of dazzle for customers. When used properly, accent lighting design can actually serve to “guide” shoppers from one area of focus to another.
Within showrooms, where elements of theater art come into play, color rendering is essential. New cars come in an amazing array of colors, and falling in love with a color is one of the reasons people buy cars. Therefore, it is essential that accent lighting carries with it a high color rendering index (CRI) so that featured vehicles never appear muddy or washed out.
5. Fantastic Lighting in Service Areas
Employees and technicians in service areas perform precision work every day. For them, proper lighting is a benefit of their employment, enabling them to perform at a high level in a safe and engaging environment.
For external customers, a well-lit service area imparts the impression that the dealership provides excellent maintenance and repair services for the car they’re buying.
6. Automation and Control
As with any endeavor, there are usually winners and losers in life. A close look at automobile dealerships that seem to win all the time shows that they pay close attention to energy cost savings. These dealerships embrace automation and control for their lighting systems.
For just one example of how lighting controls can deliver success for a dealership, consider how outdoor and showroom lighting can be automatically dimmed 10% each evening at a specified time. This one simple control feature delivers the security dealerships need while also delivering significant cost savings.
Dimmers, motion detectors, timers, and remote controls are all available today for dealerships paying attention to the small savings that can really add up to big reductions in energy costs.
7. Last, But Really First: LED Lighting
There can still be businesses making do with inefficient and inconsistent metal halide, high pressure sodium, or fluorescent lighting fixtures. The fact is, however, that there are still some holdouts among us.
For these dealerships, all we can say is, “We’re here to help.”
The facts just speak for themselves with modern LED lighting. Today’s LED fixtures are smaller and more attractive than older technologies. They have a long, durable life span and they emit natural, uniform white light.
LEDs have dramatically lower operating costs, and modern fixtures offer omnidirectional and unidirectional light for every application. A full LED retrofit is the single biggest performance and energy improvement most dealerships can make.
Most importantly, there is this one fact: LED fixtures provide light coloring capabilities that bring out the finest features of shiny new automobiles.
To put it bluntly, new cars look better when illuminated with LED light. That really is the name of the game.
The Catch With LED
LED fixtures fade. You just can’t see it.
LED is the right call for any dealership. But LED is not “install it and forget it.” Most LED fixtures are rated to L70, the point at which they have lost 30% of their original light output. That typically happens between year 5 and year 7.
The lights are still on. They look fine to the eye. But the showroom is dimmer than it was when the system was commissioned, the front line does not pop the way it used to, and the service bays are quietly underperforming.
If your dealership upgraded to LED before 2020, your system is either past L70 or close to it. A photometric audit is the only way to know for sure.
Lighting Is Serious Business for Automobile Dealerships
Positive first impressions are key for any business. In the auto dealership world, however, where competition is fierce and a steady stream of corporate advertising pervades the public consciousness to dilute any one product message, attracting customers to the dealership is a matter of survival.
Superior lighting gives auto dealers a competitive advantage, imparting positive impressions about the business and presenting each car or truck in the most attractive way.
Auto dealers understand that when their customers are contemplating an expensive purchase decision, every little additional enticement can tip the buying decision in the right direction.
Individual auto dealerships, as well as automobile dealership groups, all understand the importance of placing their best foot forward with smart, strategic lighting for their facilities.
Case Study
Penske Automotive
Arizona · Luxury Dealership Group
Penske Automotive needed to reduce operating costs and improve lighting quality across their Arizona dealership portfolio. FSG conducted a full audit, designed location-specific solutions, and delivered a consistent retrofit program across showrooms, offices, and service bays.
The result was uniform, high-performance lighting that improved the customer experience and cut energy use by over a million kilowatt-hours annually. The project was delivered through FSG’s national accounts program, with consistent execution across every Arizona location.
1,100
Fixtures Replaced
1.09M+
kWh Saved Annually
25+
Locations Retrofitted
100%
Self-Performed by FSG
Delivering Lasting Value to Auto Dealerships
FSG is committed to finding the right solutions for each business we serve. Whether we’re working for a local dealership or a regional dealership group, we bring our national scale and distribution network to each job.
That means our expert lighting designers and technicians are not limited to any one product line or service offering. We are uniquely positioned to offer whatever lighting solution works best for your specific dealership location.
For our automobile dealership customers, we focus on providing flexible lighting solutions that perform flawlessly today as well as in the future when their specific application needs might change.
With flexible lighting designs and lighting fixtures that deliver color tuning, temperature tuning, and a wide range of programmable features, FSG gives dealerships the ability to make one lighting solution work across multiple seasons and applications.
Auto Dealership Lighting FAQs
How many footcandles should a car dealership showroom have?
Most car dealership showrooms target 75 to 100 footcandles, with higher levels (closer to 100 fc) for luxury and OEM-branded showrooms where vehicle color accuracy is critical. CRI should be 90 or higher, and color temperature is typically 4000K to 5000K.
What CRI is best for car dealership lighting?
For indoor showrooms, a CRI of 90 or higher is the standard. CRI measures how accurately a light source renders color, and dealership inventory has to look like itself, not muddy or washed out. For lots and service bays, a CRI of 80 or higher is acceptable.
What are the footcandle requirements for a car dealership parking lot?
Front-line and feature display areas should hit 50 to 70 footcandles. Main inventory lots run 30 to 45 footcandles. Perimeter and guest parking areas typically run 20 to 25 footcandles. These numbers are guidelines, not codes, and local ordinances on light trespass and uniformity may also apply.
How long do LED dealership lights last?
Quality LED fixtures are rated for 50,000 to 100,000 hours, which translates to roughly 12 to 20 years at typical dealership operating hours. However, most fixtures are also rated to L70, meaning they will have lost 30% of their original light output by year 5 to 7. The fixture still works, but the dealership is no longer getting the light levels the system was originally designed to deliver.
How much does it cost to retrofit a car dealership to LED?
Cost depends on dealership size, current fixture count, ceiling height, control system requirements, and whether work is done in zones or all at once. Most retrofits pay back in 2 to 4 years on energy savings alone, and utility rebates often cover 10 to 30% of project cost. A photometric audit is the first step in getting an accurate quote.
Who installs dealership lighting nationwide?
FSG self-performs commercial lighting installations across all 50 states with 43+ years of experience serving single-location dealerships and multi-state automotive groups including Penske Automotive. We handle audits, design, retrofit, controls, and ongoing maintenance.
Get Started
Get an Honest Read on Your Auto Dealership Lighting
Whether your dealership is still on metal halide or your LED system is past L70, the first step is the same: a photometric audit. FSG measures actual light levels across your showroom, lots, and service bays, compares them to where they should be, and gives you a report you can use to plan a retrofit on your terms. Self-performed across 50 states, with 43+ years of dealership lighting experience.
