Who wants a custom Prius vs bundled packages?

I agree. It seems the only reason any car manufacturer won't take a customer's order is because they lose an opportunity to sell high margin crap. Sooner or later it will bite them in the butt. Right now Toyota (for one) can afford to be arrogant but things change.

All we can do is vote with the wallet and let our reasons be known. Eventually someone will step up & sell what you want.

 

I don't disagree that they like to sell things that generate the most money (who wouldn't?), but 'build to order' cars are just not feasible. If you take the mass production aspect out of car manufacturing, then you will pay A LOT more for your custom car with one option than the current high end car with all the options.

 

I prefer the way Toyota does it over the way Honda does it. With Toyota, I can get everything I want in/on the car from the factory. With Honda, there are things that should be factory that they make dealer-installed, which increases the chance that the interior of the car will get mucked up during the install process.

 

Corporate profits drive the option package system that Toyota has at this time, but the system alienates some of its customers.
I wanted the back-up camera, but it only came within the Navigation Package. There was no way that I would pay $1800 for a package that contained a relatively poor navigation system. I already had a great Garmin unit.
Instead of Toyota getting maybe $600 for a back up camera they got nothing at all. I'm sure there are others who will not pay for something they don't want.

 

I agree with all that's been said. Still, I wonder, how was it possible way back in the 60's for car manufacturers to sell cars at a nice profit, without the benefit of 'packages'? I remember in particular being able to order a new Chevy in four different trim levels, and then being able to tick off anything I wished for off their long options list including choice of engine, transmisssion, type of radio, etc. It was possible to have thousands of slightly unique cars among the half-million or so sold.

 

The Mini Cooper may be an exception, but the Prius is no Ferrari or Maybach and 25-30k is hardly some serious cash for a new car nowadays.

 

Right,
The down side of buying that Chevy was, if you bought a new 59 impalla ... or a 63 bellair ... you were lucky if it thing held together much longer than its paltry 12,000 warranty. hooe yea ... the good 'ol days. Obviously the way toyota is selling the Gen III right now is working. A couple dozen of us on PC got a very sweet offer from Toyota a few months earlier. We ordered a package V through that offer, but had to call our dealer in Kalispell to cancel after it was delivered. It sold the same day, to another. We'd ordered the sandy beach, one of the least popular colors ... and it was gone in less than a day. I talked with our sales contact Mark just today. He told us they haven't been able to even GET another package V since that one, months ago, because the demand is so high. So if you don't buy one pre packaged ... and if Toyota can't even keep up with the demand of the packages they're offering, what do they have to loose? Do you see the malibu hybrid sold with 4 different engines and/or 2 different trannies? No, in fact they sold so poorly, they've already stopped production.

It's not the 1st time this has happened ... wasn't it Henry Ford who said, "you can get any colar Model T you want, as long as it's black"

.

 

The thing that frustrates me is when I get nickeled and dimed for things. Like the XM radio that costs 400-500$. Why? An XM radio receiver from XM radio costs way less than that. It can't cost that much to produce it an integrate it in the car. And like the fog lights, or auto-on headlights, the car is already wired for it, but they make a lighting package for it and then add a few dollars worth of parts and then charge thousands for it. I really feel that most of that stuff should be standard equipment. It would be so much easier for them if they sold the car with all the options as standard and basically you chose exterior color, interior color (or even limit that to two options, whatever), and if you want cloth or leather (or just have dealer install leather.)

When the car comes in so much trim packages and with weird options it makes shopping for one so much more difficult. I go to the dealer and there's 4 Prius on the lot, it makes it more confusing cause each one has some option I want, but none of them has all the options I want.