Thread: OK whats next
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Old 09-15-2010, 09:43 PM   #22
fastball
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Drives: 2017 Camaro 2SS 6MT
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Posts: 4,361
Quote:
Originally Posted by nards444 View Post
more cost productive because they make money on it.

If you really think about it if you have a 30k car think about how much of that cost is garbage stuff like XM, dual climate control, the stuff that you could really live without, I mean can probably find a dozen things that arent needed. I will not lie, power windows, locks, and AC I love and wouldnt go without.

Lesson learned from Honda and Toyota: Make trim levels, make cars with limited option combinations, and it will keep production costs low and quality levels high.

Trust me when I tell you: your $30k Camaro would cost $35k or more if XM radio, OnStar, and power everything were optional.

The reason is that everything in a car is now assembled as sub-assemblies, off site of the factory, before being assembled as one car in the factory. The dashboard, for example, arrives to Oshawa as one piece, instead of everything in it being put together, piece by piece, in the factory on the line like it used to be.

So, the dash is just lined up, all the harness connections are made, and it's bolted in.

If there were cars with and without all the myriad of electronics that you would like to see optional, it would increase the cost of building the different dash boards and force them to have multiple stock piles of them (instead of two: V6 and V8).

Building a car today is NOT like the old days, where you could pick and choose your options like a buffet.
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