Options can make or break a car, from the ingeniously practical Ford door edge protectors - a snip at £85 - to the gratuitously opulent £100K Breitling timepiece you can add to your
Bentley Bentayga
there are many and varied ways to throw additional money at your new wheels. Some of them worth the investment. Others not so much. Nowadays online configurators are not only ubiquitous, but so advanced that their use has become the time killer of choice for many a bored petrolhead - guilty as charged here at PH.
Whether investigating the options on an upcoming long-termer, ridiculously over-speccing the latest Italian supercar or, as happened recently at PH Towers, seeing just how expensive a Ford F-550 can get (because journalism) there is something peculiarly cathartic about optioning up a new car with no concern for practicality or cost.
Back in the real world though, the choices made, or not made, in these configurators have implications. Especially if you get it wrong, as Dan discovered recently when he realised the F-Type S Coupe he'd specced as his long-termer was a 'Black Pack' window trim away from the car he'd imagined.
Having seen the aesthetics of a £72,000 Jaguar almost ruined by the omission of a £610 option, it got us thinking, what's the most egregious configurator cock-up out there? The DB11 press car Aston provided for our head to head with the 911 Turbo S took it a step further, having seemingly been specced by Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen circa 2002. Not to be outdone, Ferrari has recently released its 70th anniversary liveries, featuring a smorgasbord of 'eye catching' designs.
Some configurators limit the combinations of options, stepping in to save you from yourself when your judgment starts to slip - a traction control system for taste if you will. Others however give you freer rein to create some utter monstrosities.
Below are a few examples of just how badly wrong we've managed to get things - share your own experiences whether they're confined to the configurator or brought into reality below!
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