Lingo hangs everywhere around us. Behind every detail lies a technological tongue twister and behind every five-syllable word is it’s one-syllable meaning. Pre-owned means used and e-commerce is another way to say online business, but there’s one pair of terms that might not be so clear. Is certification just reconditioning under another hide? Some say certification and reconditioning are different degrees of the same service while others shake their heads and disagree and maybe concede that the two might be cousins. The questions to consider are many. How has certification’s recent surge of success impacted reconditioning? How, if at all, are they integrated? What does the future of reconditioning look like?  The first thing to consider is the technical side – the lingo. Bob McDevitt, senior vice president of sales and operations for ADT Automotive, is one who believes the two words are one.

A Higher Level

“Certification is just another level of reconditioning, another differentiator,” he said. “One probably enhances the other, but it really started out with cleaning cars.” McDevitt said technicians then started fixing dents and the problems under the hood. That’s when certification took reconditioning to it’s current height, he said – when reconditioning started including mechanics. “We strongly believe in the total reconditioning of a vehicle because it has a bang for the buck, and it’s another differentiator for those selling them on lots,” he said. Another term used to thread this needle is “upscale reconditioning.” Jason Zimostrad, vice president of sales and marketing for The Paint Bull, a Michigan-based paint service and training company, says it’s a sign of the times. “Years ago, reconditioning was, ‘How can we polish it and make it look good?” he said. “Now it’s a matter of perfection, competition and rising standards.” Reconditioning and appearance departments have walked a long road since the spit-shine days, when it was a matter of cleaning a car before sliding it onto the showroom floor or taking care of it after you buy it. Today it’s a multimillion-dollar service that everyone – dealers, vendors, auctions and manufactures – has explored. Toyota is one of the leading manufactures in the reconditioning and certification fields, and it also takes the brother-sister approach. “We almost use the words as synonyms,” said Randy Rankin, Toyota’s national retail support and compliance manager. “To us, certification is reconditioning a car to a customer’s standards.” But Manheim’s vice president of reconditioning services, Jamie Porter, said the two were related but had no direct connections. From the Driveway to the Auction Lane several factors had to come together to bring so many industry heavyweights into reconditioning services. It started as routine maintenance and care, something you do at the last minute or in your spare time. Something to add a little sparkle to the finish. As late as the 1970’s, consumers owned their cars only about 4.9 years, and while it was successful, the industry wasn’t quite burgeoning.

But come the 1980, the market started changing, independent companies started offering it’s services, and dealerships started looking for services outside their doors rather than in-house. “We started about 1980, and at that time, we sensed a movement coming,” said Bud Abraham, whose Detail Plus Car Appearances Systems offers detailing, equipment and training to auto dealers. Reconditioning took off with rising auto prices in the 1980s, financing expanding soon afterward and consumers hanging onto their cars longer. Abraham said the average auto buyer keeps a vehicle for nine years, up from 7.8 years in 1990.

How things have changed.

Last year, Manheim spent $23 million expanding it’s services in auction lanes. ADT developed a centralized training program for all it’s technicians. And technology has brought innovations like Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) and hot-water extraction to the forefront and brought the industry out of the bucket-and-hose era. “It’s like PDR, if you go back two years and take a look,” McDevitt added. “And now it’s a way of life today. It’s much more effective using Paintless Dent Repair than bumping it out and painting it, small repairs so to speak.”

Today’s Standards

Some manufacturers see reconditioning and certification so closely that they combine them. Toyota’s Certified Used Vehicles program is such a program, and it includes a rigorous reconditioning program with five basic steps:

--Mechanical. Submit every vehicle to the 128-point inspection and standard mechanical tests.

--Appearance. Make sure the vehicle is dirt- and scuff-free.

 --Appearance. Repair. Smooth over dents and dings to ensure quality, using paint touch-up, PDR and other services.

--Point-of-Sale Materials. Make sure certified vehicles are properly labeled and marked for sale.

--Segregate certified from non-certified vehicles to establish them as a different and better brand name.

Toyota does not recondition and certify it’s own vehicles; it’s franchised dealers do. Toyota, however, sets the standards. “We expect one year old cars to be not prefect but pretty dag-gone close to it,” Rankin added. “We ask customers what they expect.” The major auction chains – ADESA Corp., ADT and Manheim – all have reconditioning lanes in most of their auctions. In it’s expansion in the last year, Manheim added seven paint and body shops to it’s auctions, creating 258,000 square feet and 14 new lanes. It added seven detail shops with 42 lanes, each capable of moving 50 vehicles per day. Manheim also opened seven mechanical shops with a total of 68 bays. “With certification, you’re checking not only the condition; you’re checking the mechanics,” Porter added. “We’ve invested into new shops this year and last year.”