3M & Toyota Dealerships

[Tintguy1980]

Decision makers taking the industry down the in-house road haven't been in an installer shoe to get a feel of the personality and heartbeat of what window tinting is about, nor do they care what old industry types want them to understand. They are merely poking around in the dark based on the number of car dealership success stories which are less than or equal in number compared with independent owner success stories. I'm unsure whether they see the potential consequences of putting mom/pop out and car dealerships in. Eventually it can lead the auto and glass mannies to lobby congress and NHTSA (in US market) to change the VLT standards for auto glass, adding in high performance benefits to boot, and after the dust settles auto tint sales spiral down to non-existent.

[Chappy]

Do you get good money for installing pre-supplied film Chappy?

Well we can only obviously charge for labour. But it can be a win I guess, as on their installation sheet that comes with the 'kit', it has an 'installation time', and we just charge per hour by the installation time thats on the sheet.

So say it says 60mins to tint 2 fronts on say a Hilux, it might only take 15-20mins to actually do so I guess its ok if you are doing a lot of them. But we only get their cars when the in-house guy is too busy, or the customer specifically requests that its done at our workshop

The film is CS 35 and CS 50. It is not that much harder to use than other films on the market. Not to question your experience but most skilled installers can tint a toyota with pretty much any brand film. It is one of the most used Auto films on the market. Adjust your slip and mindset that it's slightly different but still just polyester film and install it and cash the checks!

Yeah it must be CS50 then id say. Most vehicles do see much aesthetic change or appeal at all when its on. I can use it no worries and heat it fine, it jut takes longer ive found. I have all the patience in the world... but not when the boss is on my case because a car is taking a bit longer than it should haha

Ive used a plethora of different films/brands etc over the past decade, but this film is by far my least favorite. im not the worlds fastest tinter, because im too much of a perfectionist which slows me down often... I dont think it has ever taken me longer than 10mins to shrink and cut a rear screen on any car, with any film. But this particular 3M stuff see's me atleast double that some days!

[Glass Tinting Supplies]

Toyota dealerships, and all other brand dealerships in Aus. are generally independantly owned and when it comes to tinting and aftermarket they can use whatever they see fit be it side steps, bullbars, canopies, paint, vinyl or tint, they are free to make there own arrangements independantly of Toyota Aus.

The trend lately is for the dealer to do as much in house as possible to max their revenue.

Yours might use MMM, my local tints in house and is supplied with M1 (llumar) film.

Each to their own

Dealer's tinting in house ,and our film suppliers supporting them, has made it very difficult for independant tinting businesses to remain viable - they dont mind using you though when their man goes on holidays, is sick or just can't do a hard new model.

Don't get me started....

It is my pet hate Daz.. I just love how suppliers act like they support Independents, and then go and sell film directly to a dealership so they can control prices.

GTS will NEVER supply directly to dealerships!!! Ever!!! Our Oxide film has attracted quite a lot of interest because it is a metallized film that is signal friendly, and hence can be used on any vehicle. So we will be pushing dealerships who are interested in our products to find a local independent that can supply them with the film, and I am happy to say that a number of installers have taken over dealerships that were once controlled by M1. It is the X pack that is a different challenge altogether. And that is what keeps M1 in the dealerships.

Window Tinting takes skill, and trying to control installers to show up at a dealership and tint for an hourly rate, will the film sitting there, will eventually fail in every case.

I have installed quite a lot of CS35 over the past few years (It seems so much like ST Carbon with a different adhesive Wonder why??) If I have a customer that requests 3M, then being an independent I can give them 3M. But I don't like using it, and I do not believe the additional price is justified by the quality of the product, so I can install more user friendly proven products, and offer better value for money for my customers.

It is not hard to install, it is just harder than it should be. And if you think that CS has an agressive adhesive GTint, you should try the Oxide... Almost too agressive.. Almost..

[Glass Tinting Supplies]

Decision makers taking the industry down the in-house road haven't been in an installer shoe to get a feel of the personality and heartbeat of what window tinting is about, nor do they care what old industry types want them to understand. They are merely poking around in the dark based on the number of car dealership success stories which are less than or equal in number compared with independent owner success stories. I'm unsure whether they see the potential consequences of putting mom/pop out and car dealerships in. Eventually it can lead the auto and glass mannies to lobby congress and NHTSA (in US market) to change the VLT standards for auto glass, adding in high performance benefits to boot, and after the dust settles auto tint sales spiral down to non-existent.

In Aus smarts, the association that represents the window tinting industry us here WFAANZ are running a partition to regulate the laws so that the VLT limit is the same in every state. If this happens, I have no doubt what so ever, that it will be the day that we see pre-tinted glass on all windows of a vehicle as standard. We have 7 states here, so it would be far more likely to happen here than in the US, but I can remember people saying that privacy/pre-tinted glass would never be standard, and it surely is now. The introduction of a genuine high performance glass as standard would be a very, very bad thing for the auto tinting industry world wide. And now that we have seen a takeover of Bekart by Saint Gobain, It would seem likely that it will be SG that would have the best chance of making Solar performance glass standard in vehicles. They do already supply 1/3 of the worlds auto glass.

Not going to happen?

[RockyDaz]

Time to either start diversifying, carve yourself a bigger slice of the pie or plan for life after tinting, it is a declining market.

[Tintguy1980]

Our Oxide film has attracted quite a lot of interest because it is a metallized film that is signal friendly, and hence can be used on any vehicle.

For that matter even science guys I've spoke with explain ceramic as truly a metal (coated oxide, nitride) which masks the metallic properties; all this on a nano-particle scale. A few years ago LLumar had a video at SEMA showing how a metal (and ceramic 30) film can degrade radio signal significantly enough to be an annoyance.

the association that represents the window tinting industry us here WFAANZ are running a partition to regulate the laws so that the VLT limit is the same in every state.

Precisely the opposite here where they see that state laws are diverse enough. This will not slow glass makers from seeking legislative equality in glass standards. Pilkington produces a privacy glass with TSER +/- 65%, 95-99 UV and is currently used in today's auto's with privacy glass from the manny; just a matter of time before glass has high vlt with gret solar properties.

[Glass Tinting Supplies]

Precisely the opposite here where they see that state laws are diverse enough. This will not slow glass makers from seeking legislative equality in glass standards. Pilkington produces a privacy glass with TSER +/- 65%, 95-99 UV and is currently used in today's auto's with privacy glass from the manny; just a matter of time before glass has high vlt with gret solar properties.

I hate to admit it Smarts, but having high performance glass standard in a vehicle makes good sense... So to try and stop it from happening would be like holting progess. But it really does spell a dark period for auto tinting. And I would imagine that the glass mannys will recommend that a film not be applied to the glass so as not to affect its solar performance.. Like Daz said, it is time to diversify, and get better.. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Hopefully it is a few years off yet..

[Chappy]

Not exactly the most comforting discussion I've read lately, considering im looking at taking over/buying the business off my boss towards the end of the year.....

All of a sudden my thoughts run from to

[tintme69]

Gulf States Distributors, a large Toyota distributor is a large player in this. They're tinting thousands a month.

[lynxcustoms]

here in CO the Toyota dealer is installing whatever the sublet outfit is bringing in, never 3m=

Man sometimes large dealers will buy 3M, but a sub grade bulk film they purchase in bulk, maybe the 3m standard?? I can't imagine any dealership using the Color Stable tint, and allowing an outside installer to put it on lol, could cost them alot of $ in wasted materials