I have an iPhone, and I can't remember the last time I saw another iPhone user without a case. Despite the huge population of iPhone users, we all have different-looking iPhones. They're all the same. It's not like a Droid where roughly the same operating system commands a plethora of both cheap and expensive smartphones. It's a cookie cutter phone in the best possible way because we can all have different cookies.
The market is ripe for customization. Everyone wants their personality to shine through their purchases. The two most expensive things anyone buys are their home and their method of transportation. Everyone, without exception, customized their homes. You can't walk into a house and see the same thing twice—different arrangements of furniture, photographs, art, paint, everything.
Automobiles, on the other hand, have the same potential. Why aren't people doing it?
PRICE—If it cost less to modify our vehicles, we would probably all do it. GM subscribes to this belief, and even goes so far as to encourage a proper salesperson to present GM Accessories. I'll get back to that in a couple of paragraphs. These accessories are generally expensive and not really worth the money. I'll give you a solid example. There's no reason a footwell lighting kit should ever cost $500, but
here it is. Lower the profit margin on these items, and they'll sell in higher quantities. Stop listening to your financial guys who drive family sedans without any of these parts. You need to listen to the buyers, and I'd say Camaro enthusiasts are definitely buyers.
RESALE VALUE—Someone is going to come into this thread and tell me customizations kill resale value. Yes, throwing giant vinyls on your ricer does kill the resale value, and so does that supercharger, but it should still be an option. We still let people buy unusual colors for cars and base models with no options, and both of those kill resale value, too.
WARRANTY—Someone else is going to come in here and tell me the warranty is affected by these parts. Have you looked at
GM Accessories Zone? I don't think any of those parts could possibly void your warranty.
DEAL STRUCTURE—This one gets into how car deals are made. It's not really the dealer's fault that he or she is stuck selling these they way they do. First, they sell you a car, and then they sell you stuff for the car. A lot of accessories would be easier to sell if they were part of the car part of the deal. It's evident with truck sales that people will buy large packages for discounts. If GM encouraged the sale of a dealer performance spec car with a certain collection of accessories at a special discount, that would move units. Imagine a Sonic turbo being sold with accessory wheels and sporty tires, a different grille, an intake upgrade, a stripe package, and exhaust for less than the sum of those parts. This can be done at the end of the deal. All of these can be added at the dealer, and the stock parts can be kept instead of given back to the buyer. What is a Sonic driver going to do with a stock air box? Keep it, recondition it, and offer it to a service customer that was in a front end collision for a discount. Everyone wins.
MERCHANDIZE—Usually, it sucks. The options for customization range from keychains and reflective triangles to rally stripes to battery protection. Only one of these four examples actually enhances the car. The rest of this stuff belongs at AutoZone in the "stuff I don't need" isle. I will give some credit to GM for offering a variety of
audio upgrade packages, but I have to be blunt, a top reason why this stuff doesn't sell is because it sucks. What kind of merchandize is going to sell? You're on the right track with brake upgrade kits. You could probably make one of those for most cars and sell it as a safety feature. Stripes and graphics are good, too. You might want to make more of them to order to keep costs down so that the prices can drop. I also like the interior trim kits. You'd catch more interest if you tailored accessories to sporty car drivers. If you tailor a Malibu from start to finish for Mrs. Soccer Mom, her husband, with a '70 Chevelle in the garage isn't going to have as much fun driving it. They both own the car, so sell some sportier seats out of a Z28, and a stripe package. Most of the accessories offered today are floor mats and splash guards. That's not customization. The car has to scream, "This is me!" It needs to have the personality of the person driving it, even if that means GM is offering something ridiculous. I should be able to look at the accessories page and laugh that some option is being bought by some weirdo instead of laughing that GM probably has a warehouse full of chrome door handles for every car that no one has bought in the last 10 years.
It's a long post, but I'm sick of seeing salespeople pitch the same parts year after year in a vain attempt to sell to one of us. As Camaro enthusiasts, I'd like to say we should be grateful for all the OEM options that we're given. We do have more options than other GM drivers. If you take out the floor mats, Spark drivers have only five accessories to consider, and one of them is a smoker's package. I want to see every GM car different and reflective of the person who drives that car. Someday, if GM gets the accessories thing right, we'll see more people with more passion about their vehicles, and GM will make more money on the front of every deal.