Your facility’s overhead doors do not simply allow you to easily display top-performing vehicles; they also communicate a lot about your company to potential customers, with a sleek, modern, and efficient door projecting an image of cutting-edge service. For this reason, it’s important to choose your car dealership’s doors (and the openers that support them) carefully.
The Best Commercial Doors for Car Dealerships
When selecting doors for a car dealership, you need to balance aesthetics with functionality, security, and durability. This means that the doors must be large enough to accommodate vehicles easily, strong enough to provide security, and stylish enough to complement your building’s design. With these factors in mind, the top choices for modern car dealerships include:
Full-View Glass and Aluminum Doors
Without a doubt, full-view sectional doors are the gold standard for car dealership showrooms. These doors are constructed with aluminum frames and large glass panels so that their clean, minimalistic appearance aligns perfectly with the sophisticated image of the automotive industry.
With a full glass commercial door, car dealerships can enjoy:
- Unmatched Aesthetics and Visibility: The primary advantage of full-view doors is their ability to turn your showroom into a 24/7 display case. The expansive glass panels capture the attention of passersby and draw them in, while the sleek lines of the aluminum frame can be customized to match your dealership’s branding and architectural style.
- A Flood of Natural Light: These doors allow an abundance of natural light to enter the showroom. This not only reduces the need for artificial lighting, but it also enhances the appearance of the vehicles on display. You can trust it will bring out the true colors and finishes of the cars, making them look their absolute best.
- Customization Options: Just because they are considered “full-view glass doors” does not mean you are restricted in the design department. You can select from a variety of frame finishes, including clear anodized, black, white, or custom powder-coated colors to match your corporate branding. The glass itself also comes in numerous options, such as clear, tinted, frosted, or mirrored, so you can control the level of privacy and light transmission.
Insulated Sectional Steel Doors
For areas of the dealership where security and thermal efficiency are bigger priorities than visibility — such as service bays, body shops, or vehicle storage areas — insulated sectional steel doors are an outstanding choice. With these workhorses, car dealerships can benefit from:
- Exceptional Durability and Security: Constructed from heavy-gauge steel, these doors offer superior strength and security, making them the perfect choice for protecting your valuable inventory and equipment. They are also built to withstand the daily wear and tear of a commercial environment.
- Superior Energy Efficiency: Insulated sectional doors feature a core of polyurethane or polystyrene insulation sandwiched between steel panels. This construction provides a high R-value, creating a formidable thermal barrier. In a climate-controlled service bay, this translates directly into lower heating and cooling costs and a more stable, comfortable work environment for your technicians, regardless of the weather outside.
- Noise Reduction: The insulation and solid construction of these doors also provide excellent sound-dampening qualities. This can help reduce the amount of noise escaping from the service bay to the showroom or the exterior of the building, contributing to a more pleasant customer experience.
High-Speed Fabric and Rubber Doors
While full-view doors are perfect for the showroom, the service bay has a different set of requirements. This area is all about efficiency, safety, and environmental control. That’s why high-speed doors, made from durable fabric or tough rubber, are the ideal solution for service drive-throughs and repair bay entrances in car dealerships.
Key benefits of high-speed fabric and rubber doors for service bays include:
- Optimized Traffic Flow: High-speed doors open and close in a matter of seconds, drastically reducing the time vehicles and personnel spend waiting. This rapid cycle time is essential for maintaining a smooth flow of traffic in and out of the service department, improving technician productivity, and getting customers’ cars back on the road faster.
- Enhanced Safety: These doors are typically equipped with advanced safety features, such as light curtains and reversing safety edges. These systems detect any obstruction in the doorway and will instantly reverse the door’s direction, preventing accidents and protecting both vehicles and personnel.
- Environmental Control and Energy Savings: Another benefit of high-speed doors closing quickly is that they help maintain a consistent indoor temperature. This leads to substantial energy savings and a more comfortable working environment for your staff.
The Best Commercial Door Openers for Car Dealerships
Equally important as the door itself is the opener that operates it. Car dealerships need openers that can handle frequent cycles, integrate with security systems, and ensure smooth, quiet operation. Below are the top types of commercial door openers for your facility:
Trolley Operators
Trolley operators are one of the most common types of commercial door openers. They run on a track system installed on the ceiling, similar to a residential garage door opener, but are built on a much more robust and heavy-duty scale. This setup is best for standard sectional doors, including the full-view glass doors in a showroom.
Jackshaft Operators
Jackshaft operators, also known as wall-mount or side-mount openers, are an excellent alternative, especially when ceiling space is limited or you want a cleaner, more open look in your showroom. Instead of a trolley system, these operators are mounted on the wall next to the door and connect directly to the door’s torsion bar to raise and lower it.
A jackshaft operator is well-suited for showrooms with high or obstructed ceilings or where a sleek, minimalist aesthetic is desired. They are also the standard for high-lift and vertical-lift doors, which are common in service bays to maximize vertical clearance for vehicle lifts.
Smart Openers With Remote and App Integration
Smart commercial door operators offer next-level functionality. These systems allow your team to control and monitor doors remotely via smartphone or desktop apps and even enable you to program the door to automatically close after a preset amount of time. With one of these openers, you can have greater peace of mind about your car dealership’s operational efficiency and security.
Let Arcem Entry Systems Help You Make the Right Choice
If you are getting ready to build a new car dealership or want to enhance your existing space, we can help you choose the best commercial doors and openers for your facility. We will thoroughly assess your site so that we can make recommendations that will align with your traffic volume, clearance requirements, energy efficiency goals, and brand image. After installing the door, we will support your car dealership’s efforts with scheduled maintenance plans and emergency repairs.
In addition to overhead doors, we can also outfit your facility with high-quality pedestrian doors that match your functional needs and design preferences. If you need sliding entry doors, aluminum storefront systems, or fire-rated doors, we will provide a solution that keeps your dealership’s entry points secure and visually appealing.
Contact Arcem Entry Systems today to discover how we can elevate your car dealership with a state-of-the-art door and opener system.