Car Options & Packages

The various car options, packages , and additional dealer add on's is an area you will really want to take a critical look at and do some serious calculating.

The various trim and package options and other little "creature comforts" can mean comfortable profits for the dealer.

At least in relationship of what you get for your dollar spent on them.

And some which you might be enticed to purchase (add to the finance cost of the car) are actually quite worthless in terms of additional value. If you have done your research, you will know which option packages will at least add a bit of value to your car.

A basic rule of thumb is that manufacturer added option packages such as power packages (door locks, windows, sunroofs, etc) will give a little bit back on the trade-in side.

However, dealer added packages are generally made available to you to add to the dealer profit only. Actually many of the dealer add on's pay for the cash bonuses that the dealer will give to the sales people.... known in the business as a 'spiff' to the sales people. Yep, those $69.95 custom pin stripes probably cost the dealer about $15 bucks. Of that (really) gross profit on the stripes, the salesperson may have gotten a $25 spiff.

Manufacturers will put together option packages on their cars, and do what is termed "value pricing."  By putting the most popular options together in a package the auto maker can save on the production costs since they have to produce fewer variations of the same car. 

This type of package can be a good deal for you if the items included in the option package are the options you wanted to purchase anyway. Keep in mind though you can also waste your money if the package includes items that your really aren't interested in having. An easy way to look at the package vs. what options you only want is to simply add up the cost of only the options you want and compare the price to the package that may have an item or two more than you want.

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It may happen that the cars that you look at on the dealer's lot have more accessories and options already installed that you really want or want to pay for. The salesperson may insist that you have buy the car "as is." If this is the case that you run into, and you have the time, you may want to wait or order the car directly from the factory.

But keep in mind ordering a car greatly reduces your ability to negotiate the price.

Keep in mind if you are considering a special order from the factory, you really aren't in much of a position to negotiate the price of the car. Keeping within the perspective of this website, and from the perspective of a dealer, the dealer would much rather sell you a car directly out of their standing inventory.

Dealers have a much greater motivation to sell their on hand inventory, and it is this motivation you can use to get yourself the best new car deal. 

Depending upon the demand for the car and options you are looking at and how long the car that the dealer would like to sell you has been sitting on the lot, you may be able to get those options or accessories that you don't necessarily want or pay for taken off the selling price of the car.

Again, dealers would much rather reduce their own inventory. And depending upon the timing; they can be under a fair amount of pressure from the owner to do so.

A quick true story to emphasize my point.

I once had one of my assistant sales managers order a vehicle (not an order from a customer. Just a standard factory order) from our manufacturer.

A vehicle that... well let's just say... came in with a rather unique set of options on it.

A rookie mistake to be sure, but a car that the minute it came off the truck, I knew was going stay with us for a while.

Anyway to make the point, and a long story short, to eventually sell this particular vehicle, I had to not only throw in the cost of the options that were on the car, I also had to put a cash bonus on it as an incentive to the salespeople.

The customer who eventually bought this car got a great deal on a car that I had to make go away. So, we both accomplished the best for each of us.

The whole time the car was on the lot, and as the model year began to change, I used to kid my sales manager (as the pressure on me to move the car kept increasing) ....

"man, you are really going to look good driving that car home!"

We're still friends and stay in touch. And when we do you occasionally get together this story always comes up.

A few car buying tips up next...