Quote:
Originally Posted by Zaku
Simply it's not the American way. Americans want packages and loaded cars. If they did like the European model that you've mentioned above it's harder to make profit. Unless you are European manufacturers, that and non car savvy people aren't going to know what they should have what they shouldn't. Lastly competition comes with cars fully packaged, and loaded. Just look at say a Miata, Civic SI or a Gen Coupe. Si comes fully loaded, the Gen coupe has like 6 trims.
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I have two additions:
Don't forget that a lot of the stuff in 'packages' aren't all that costly to the manufacturer. On some cars, leather is $1000 option, and NAV is a $2000 option. They don't cost
nearly that amount to the OEM, but they can mark up the cost to sell to us. What that means is that if they include them in the 'base' car, we are already trained to think they are expensive features, and we feel like we are getting a good deal. What it does for the manufacturer is that the "$2000" NAV hides a some of the cost of the truely costly stuff, like the new engine, platform, etc.
Also, it is a lot cheaper for the manufacturer to have fewer 'spec' cars rolling down the assembly line. It can be an inventory nightmare for the factory to try to keep track of each individual car. "This one gets NAV, sports package, and bluetooth. This one gets nav, leather, HIDs..." It is much more efficient to crank out fewer specs and keep the assembly line rolling. Higher efficiency means less cost.