New car options and configurators
Discussion
I’m sure many of you, like me enjoy messing about with various configurators and I bet some of us get carried away when ordering a new car!
As we all know, come sale/part-ex time, these options possibly make it easier to sell, but make little difference to the price of the vehicle. Its largely lost money - except when the second hand car dealer is re-selling it on and then the extra options mysteriously gain value again!!!
Anyway, my question is:
If you are lucky enough to be able to specc and purchase new cars, what percentage above list price are you typically comfortable to add?
I think with me I get a bit carried away and it’s usually between 10 and 15% but I bet some of you go mad.
As we all know, come sale/part-ex time, these options possibly make it easier to sell, but make little difference to the price of the vehicle. Its largely lost money - except when the second hand car dealer is re-selling it on and then the extra options mysteriously gain value again!!!
Anyway, my question is:
If you are lucky enough to be able to specc and purchase new cars, what percentage above list price are you typically comfortable to add?
I think with me I get a bit carried away and it’s usually between 10 and 15% but I bet some of you go mad.
It depends on the initial list price as speccing extras is a disproportionate increase over a cheaper base car.
When I bought a Cooper S new in 2004 I think the base price was 16k or thereabouts - the options were necessities in my book:
Full leather trim
Chilli Pack (wheels and aircon I think)
Xenon headlamps
6 disc cd changer (yes, an option)
and I think it came up to about 23-24k which was 50% of the base price. As with Porsche, nobody bought a base model so the residuals looked artificially inflated as people had specced quite a bit more beacuse nothing seemed to come as standard.
When I bought a Cooper S new in 2004 I think the base price was 16k or thereabouts - the options were necessities in my book:
Full leather trim
Chilli Pack (wheels and aircon I think)
Xenon headlamps
6 disc cd changer (yes, an option)
and I think it came up to about 23-24k which was 50% of the base price. As with Porsche, nobody bought a base model so the residuals looked artificially inflated as people had specced quite a bit more beacuse nothing seemed to come as standard.
Rawwr said:
I hate blank buttons. I'll hemorrhage money out of my anus if it means not having blank buttons.
I am happy to offer a solution to save the integrity of your anushttps://www.amazon.co.uk/ENET-Stickers-Decalsl-Rep...
Rawwr said:
I hate blank buttons. I'll hemorrhage money out of my anus if it means not having blank buttons.
I've been looking at C43 AMGs recently, and they seem to grow more blank buttons the more options they have as various functions are rolled into one or entirely automated. I hate it too, but thankfully the worst area for it seems to be around the light controls which you can't normally see...In answer to the OP's question, I've also comparatively specced up an M340i. All the options I wanted on that were bundled into two packs, and even picking fancier leather and a heated steering wheel I only added about £3k (around 7%) to the list price.
Edited by HM-2 on Friday 22 November 11:28
I've never been in a position to be the one speccing from new, however I can see how the additions can get quite dangerous from a cost perspective.
I find it quite incredible that people will tick a box that adds thousands to a car, just to have a different pair of headlights, or hifi.
As a used car buyer, however, I'm glad that there are people out there "wasting" cash on these options, as they're nice to have for next to zero additional premium as a used vehicle.
I find it quite incredible that people will tick a box that adds thousands to a car, just to have a different pair of headlights, or hifi.
As a used car buyer, however, I'm glad that there are people out there "wasting" cash on these options, as they're nice to have for next to zero additional premium as a used vehicle.
HM-2 said:
I've been looking at C43 AMGs recently, and they seem to grow more blank buttons the more options they have as various functions are rolled into one or entirely automated. I hate it too, but thankfully the worst area for it seems to be around the light controls which you can't normally see...
In answer to the OP's question, I've also comparatively specced up an M340i. All the options I wanted on that were bundled into two packs, and even picking fancier leather and a heated steering wheel I only added about £3k (around 7%) to the list price.
yeah on the E8X BMWs if you added parking sensors in certain configs (maybe all) you get an extra row of buttons, 5 or 6, 1 for the sensors and 4/5 blanks. I found out the panel is for the Cabrio and 2 or 3 of the buttons are for operating the roof, so not even possible on a non-cabrio. Not sure about the others, never seen one without the blank In answer to the OP's question, I've also comparatively specced up an M340i. All the options I wanted on that were bundled into two packs, and even picking fancier leather and a heated steering wheel I only added about £3k (around 7%) to the list price.
Edited by HM-2 on Friday 22 November 11:28
Rawwr said:
I hate blank buttons. I'll hemorrhage money out of my anus if it means not having blank buttons.
On my 156 GTA, I spec'd Xenon headlights. This meant automatic headlight levelling, so I ended up with a blanking plate where the manual levelling usually is. I'm sure there must be other examples of a better spec meaning blank buttons.Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff