SHOPSMART AUTOS – CONSUMER INFORMATION – JUNE 3, 2021
Order from the factory or buy vehicle from the lot? Automakers’ websites make it all seem so simple. You click the “build and price” tab and equip your imaginary car just the way you want it. Your engine, your transmission, yourwheels and tires
, your exterior color, your seat fabric, your choice of infotainment system—you name it, you can generally specify it. But as wonderful as that sounds, configuring and ordering a new car instead of
buying a car
your dealer has in stock can lead to frustration. It could be worth the effort, but then again, maybe not. These are the pros and cons of configuring and ordering a car:
Pros of Ordering a Car
You choose the car you want, equipped as you want it.
As a car person, you probably play the game of “spec the car” all the time. You can select the engine, transmission, tires, and wheels. Check it out in (colorful adjective) red with black (exotic-sounding) leather seats. Choose the (high-end audio name) entertainment system that will envelop you in your own personal soundtrack as you navigate country roads. If you configure and order your car, you can decide a lot about the car you are going to get.
You can get the thrill of seeing something you customized digitally get built into a complex physical machine.
For the right person, this is an experience nearly as memorable as being there for the birth of your child. You can pick everything from the color of the roof to the nap of the carpeting in the trunk on many cars. It is your automotive artist’s impression come to life.
Cons
It can take a long time.
It will likely take six to eight weeks for a domestic car to be built to your specifications and delivered to your dealer. With an import, you can throw in the time to cross an ocean and transportation from the port, meaning it could take a few months.
You might not get exactly what you ordered.
Because the car business is so complex, often there are disconnects between what a manufacturer website says is available and what is really available. More often than you’d guess, a carmaker will announce an option or feature only to find out that the supplier can’t build the parts, pieces, or systems fast enough. For example, a carmaker may have anticipated only 20 percent of its buyers would want the V-6 engine, but in the two years since that decision was made, gasoline got cheaper, so now 40 percent of dealer orders are for cars with the V-6. Multiply that possibility by the number of major systems on a typical car, and you can see the potential for problems.
In most states, the only entity that can sell you a new car is a licensed new-car dealer.
So you have to buy from a dealer even if you order the car “from the factory.” Since the dealership has no investment in that to-be-built car, it might be less likely to discount the price. The salesperson faces the potential hassle of taking you on a laborious and lengthy passage through the options list. When that’s done, the dealer still can’t be certain the vehicle you specify will be built. That doesn’t sound like the recipe for a great discount deal, does it?
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