Opportunity
Jerry Drewett was no stranger to the virtues of LED. Drewett – Information Systems & Facilities Manager for the Frank Motors Group in National City, California, and a 35-year master electrician – says that he’d had his eye out for some time for the perfect opportunity to install an LED solution in one of the four properties he oversees.
Last year, he spied that opportunity. A 7,000-square-foot showroom that had previously been used to sell pre-owned cars was being transformed into the brand-new 22,000-square-foot Frank Subaru. “Since we were going to completely renovate the front showroom and replace the entire lighting system – indoor and outdoor, it made perfect sense to look at an LED package,” Drewett says. “I was sold on the LED product as a whole; it was the only solution that I was looking at for a new facility like this.”
But which manufacturer should management select? That would require some investigation – and investigate Drewett did. He spent three months looking at available products. He attended LIGHTFAIR International, the world’s largest architectural and commercial lighting trade show. And he hit the road, traveling across Southern California and into Nevada, examining lighting installations and exploring the nuances of the many options.
Solution
Drewett returned from that road trip with his mind made up. Cree® LED lighting was the clear choice. In looking at the different vendors and products out there, the most consistent and best CRI, and everything else, came from the Cree solution.”
The dealership had primarily been using HID and fluorescent lighting. Outdoors, Drewett installed Cree® KR Series downlights and Cree Edge™ High Output luminaires featuring TrueWhite® Technology. For indoors, he selected Cree LS Series surface ambient luminaires and ZR Series troffers. “Every fixture on the lot is now a Cree fixture,” he says.
Frank Subaru is in the National City Auto Center, known as the Mile of Cars – 21 new-car dealerships aligned between San Diego and the Mexican border. Making a strong initial impression – standing out from the crowd amid such intense competition – is no small task.
Benefits
Palomar Observatory is located some 70 miles to the northeast of National City, and the auto dealerships must comply with a bright-sky initiative. Drewett says Cree was very precise in aiming the optics. “We did some drone flyovers, and you could tell the difference between this property and the others in the amount of glow that came off of them above the fixtures as compared with below the fixtures. Our light is more direct, and it aims down better.” And as you approach from the street, Drewett says, the Frank Subaru lighting is much softer compared to the fluorescent and HID lighting on competitors’ lots, which exude harsher orange and yellow hues.
Subaru of America participates in a green initiative called Green Dealer Support, and being a responsible steward of the environment was certainly a factor in the decision to go with an LED solution. And while Drewett looks forward to savings in energy and maintenance costs (he figures the Cree solution will pay for itself in four to five years in maintenance savings alone), “the quality of light on the vehicles was the primary deciding factor.”
In Drewett’s business, quality lighting extends to the bottom line. Whether in the showroom or out on the lot, a Frank Subaru automobile presents impeccably in the glow of Cree LED lighting. That’s a distinction of considerable merit along the Mile of Cars. “Really,” Drewett says, “I can only rave about this lighting.”
Products Used
