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| Member |
I agree vtail, but if you look at say Porsche's and a 911, there are literally 3 pages of options to choose from, it's easy to over look one. Also look how much Porsche nabs you for, for each option......you could easily add $25k to the base price of a $89k car...... | |||
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is circumspective |
I'm exactly the opposite of most in this thread. I figure the "must-haves" & it always leads me to the highest option package. With that I get stuff I didn't even know I had to have. That leads me to even more must-haves the next time around. "We're all travelers in this world. From the sweet grass to the packing house. Birth 'til death. We travel between the eternities." | |||
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His Royal Hiney |
It's yes and no. It's no problem for manufacturing to do it but the impact do allowing more permutations is increased inventory and still a cost for change ups. It is easier to just package options together and give marketing a simplier good, better, best options. I just ordered a Dell and noticed they don't give the full custom options anymore either. They just probably get their machines premade from China. "It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946. | |||
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thin skin can't win |
Trust me, you can do more damage with just a lowly Cayman, too! You only have integrity once. - imprezaguy02 | |||
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| Member |
Was pricing a Dodge Dart this morning actually. Adding the ralleye package negated my interior and exterior color choices, and added another $1100 of packages in addition to the $400 ralleye option. Looked at a Tacoma as well. Forced to buy at least a TRD Sport crew to get v6,6spd & 4x4 @ ~$34k when all I want is the good drive line in a rubber floor work truck. And my color options are gray, silver or black (excluding the burnt orange, light blue & diarrhea brown options everybody thinks are great). On an SR5, I can only buy body color bumpers & trim on trucks in one of three of the six or so available colors. The others get black plastic and I of course want one of the other colors. Non starter anyway, see above. And since when is a stripped down 1/2 ton a $28k truck? Rubber floor, steel wheels, manual windows, plastic bumpers, bu th I can't even get a manual transmission.... WTF, really? I am seriously considering picking up an early 80s C10 and doing a 5.3/TKO swap just to get something close to what I want. A Perpetual Disappointment... | |||
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The Persian |
With BMW you can also get most of the options separate, but you get raped on price. If you are planning to get more than one option from a package you are better off just ordering the entire package. They also have some smaller packages of popular electronic options without being forced into packages that include special seats, wheels, and colors. But then again BMW doesn't have the multiple trim levels. ------- A turbo: Exhaust gasses go into the turbocharger and spin it, witchcraft happens, and you go faster. Mr. Doom and Gloom "King in the north!" "Slow is smooth... and also slow. | |||
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| Little ray of sunshine  |
I think this is true. I have the sense that a la carte options would have to be more expensive individually to make up for the one-off handling it would require. The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything. | |||
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אַרְיֵה |
I have to respectfully disagree, sir. I actually have experience, as a software engineer, in designing the "build to order" process for an automobile factory. This was, in fact, the whole reason that my team was contracted to design the computer systems for the SEAT factory in Barcelona. Two systems, first an IBM mainframe to accept orders from the dealer network and do the financial side of the process. Every night this system produced a production list that was input to the real-time system on the production line. The "pulpo" (octopus) that hung from the overhead conveyer for each car body had a bar code that was associated with the order ID for that car. As the pulpo that carried the car approached a station on the final assembly line, the terminal at that line displayed the proper option to install at that point. The proper parts would already be there for the assembly worker, as the system had scanned the bar code at an earlier point in the process and sent the "pick list" to the stock area. Prior to this, SEAT customers could choose from a selection of cars that had been arbitrarily built at the factory and sent to a dealer. With our system, the customer and salesman could specify a car, down to the last detail. The only orders that were rejected were those that were functionally impossible to build: for example, incompatible engine / transmission combinations. This was not expensive for the customers. At the time, SEAT was the biggest selling low-priced car in Spain. Analogous to the "Chevy," not the "Cadillac." הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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teacher of history |
I was in the car business and I remember a Ford presentation once where it was mentioned that a Mustang could be bought with over a thousand different variations such as colors, options, etc. A particular Honda model had less than 12. The packages make it easier and cheaper to build them. | |||
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| Member |
From a consumer perspective, I don't care about making their life easier. I want what I want, not what they want me to want. Pragmatically, I can understand it. I just don't see why a suspension & wheel package should affect color choices. Or why I can't get a particular engine without an up sell package I don't need or want. Or why I now have to pay extra to not have chrome on my car. A Perpetual Disappointment... | |||
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| אַרְיֵה |
Absolutely! The forced packaging is not about the actual production cost, it's a marketing thing. הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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| Little ray of sunshine |
Thanks for the info. It is a good reminder not to have opinions on subjects I don't know much about. The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything. | |||
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| אַרְיֵה |
Opinions are fine. Ain't nothing wrong with opinions, but it is important to be receptive to facts from somebody with personal knowledge and experience.  You have opinions, good, and you are receptive to facts, even better! הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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Member |
I'll try make this short, but... I bought a brand new BMW 335, and didn't get wheels with it. Ordered it, and it came on a ship to LA. There were no 335s in the US at that time. They put it in a single car trailer and drove it 600 miles to the dealership I bought it from. Paperwork was already done. It arrived at 8PM fri night. When they backed it out of the trailer, and I said to my wife- wow those are cool wheels. We took it home. The next day, I get a call from the dealership. Hey, we missed the sticker on the corner of the windshield, the wheels were an upgrade put on in LA. They are $5000. Can you bring us a check? Um no. Well we need to figure out something. I said, no problem, give me the stock wheels and we're cool. Well sir we don't have the stock wheels, we can order them from Germany, but could you not drive the car alot til then? I turned to my wife, while the guy was still on the phone, and asked her if she had time to drive to New York and back. Silence on the phone, and my wife was looking at me like I was crazy. Monday, I went to Les Schwab and bought the wheels and tires we were going to buy for the car anyway. I left BMWs shitty wheels there, and called them and said where they were and they could go pick them up. I and forgot about the stock wheels when the car turned out to be a lemon, and BMW bought it back after several months. We got all our $ back. But the bottom line is they sold me a car without wheels and tires. | |||
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| Member |
The few option packages also make it easier for dealers to find cars at other dealers for a customer if they don't have the customers color in stock. Just put in silver expedition option group 301A in the dealer locator. But it's great for the consumer whose comparing prices......cars are more apples to apples when comparing them at different dealers and they both have the same option group. | |||
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| אַרְיֵה |
I might be missing something in your logic, but I do not see how it applies to this thread. If you did not under stand the original post, go back and read it again. Look at the last sentence of that post. Wolfe 21 is talking about ordering the car that he wants, he is not talking about what is "in stock." הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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| Eschew Obfuscation |
That is great. Nothing better than having a dealer by the short hairs.  _____________________________________________________________________ “One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.” – Thomas Sowell | |||
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| Member |
Well unfortunately it's the way it is. Producers produce something with various options and that's it. I can't go to my grocery store and ask them to sell me a 1.6 liter bottle of Coke......you pick the one that's closest to what you want and buy it. It's a PRODUCTION vehicle, not a custom ordered car like a Porsche or Bentley. It's like ordering a Production $900 1911, it comes with what it comes with and you may have a few choices (commander vs govt) or s/s versus blued, but it's not like ordering a Wilson where you have the ability to change a lot of pieces on it. It's also not priced like one either. I understand the OPs gripe. But unfortunately there isn't anything any of us can do about it. | |||
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| Member |
Remember when you could get the lowesr priced model with wthe most powerful engine option? Today when you want the high HP model you have to order the most wxpensive model with all the bs bells and whistles that are going to fail after arrenty expires. For example, you could order a Mustang LX V8 with the cloth seats instead of the Gt with bells and whistles. In the 60s one could order a stripped sedan with no luxury items and the biggest honking v8. | |||
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| Member |
I truly wish I were around to have witnessed this. I would have gone broke on base model Chevelles & Novas with stupid horsepower ratings. 375hp 327s or L88s until the LS6 was available. Maybe a street hemi in a 66-7 Belvedere. I was born 40 years too late.... A Perpetual Disappointment... | |||
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