Who wants a custom Prius vs bundled packages?

I've noticed this topic has come up in many of the discussions on other threads, so I thought it deserved it's own thread to keep hijacks to a minimum. BTW rants are welcome here.

Personally, I'd like to be able to custom order a Prius, even though I'd have to wait (which we are all doing now anyways), and get the options I truly wanted and not those that are bundled in a package. I currently have a 2nd gen Prius. Back when I bought it, I had to wait for months and compromise on what I wanted. So when the 3rd gen came out, I was hoping lessons had been learned and these issues would not recur. Alas, we are still have long waiting lists, dealers overcharging, undesired dealer add-ons, and these option packages. My other car is a Mini Cooper. Buying that car was a breeze. Created my car online with only the options I wanted, went to my nearest dealership, gave a downpayment, waited for the car to be built/shipped (could track progress online), and picked it up when it arrived. No mess no fuss.

Call me crazy, but if I'm gonna throw down some serious cash for a new car, I'd like to get the car I want, and not a bunch of overpriced options as part of a "package". Toyota has us by the short hairs on this one, being the best hybrid out there IMHO, and if you want their coolest option, the solar roof (should be standard on all cars for us in the South), you gotta pay through the nose not only for the roof, but you gotta get their other overpriced stuff too. Originally there was to be a nav package and a solar roof package, not a solar/nav package. Toyota knows most people wouldn't pay $1800 for their nav system (do a quick search to learn the shortcomings of their system), but most people want that solar roof, so they package them together; and now they are packaging their Safety Connect subscription and a USB connector to the Solar Package; guess they figured those wouldn't be selling by themselves either.

So what's a environmentally conscious buyer who doesn't like to be taken advantage of to do? Wait. Yea wait and rant, perhaps when cash for clunkers dries up, the newness of the Prius dies down, all electric vehicles start to appear, and the Insight gets a better model, Toyota will become more reasonable with their "options". But by then, it may be too late as their loyal customers slip away.....

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"

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Adding a subscription to Safety Connect for $450 is not something that has to be massed produced at the factory. Yet, it is put into a package in order to force you to get it, that is corporate greed plain and simple. I believe in options and choices, not in compromise and one-size-fits-all when I'm paying for it. Call me cheap, but I still think around 30 K for a car is a serious cash outlay for most, so I think we should get what we want in a new car.

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.