Working for a brand like MINI, where there literally are over 10 million possible combinations when it comes to customizing a MINI down to the bodystyle, trim level, body color, roof color, interior upholstery, lower dash color, upper dash trim, etc., it’s needless to say that we do a lot of special orders for clients. I’d say roughly 1 out of every 5 cars I sell is a special order. As a matter of fact, our own CC commentator, Read Fleming, special ordered his new MINI Cooper S 2-door hardtop through me and took delivery this August.
There’s no extra charge, it only takes between 6-8 weeks for it to arrive, and we’re always willing to do it. I know next door at BMW it’s the same way (BMW SAVs take even shorter time to arrive, as they are assembled in Spartanburg, SC). However, I’ve heard stories of dealers of other makes refuse to special order a car for a customer, even if it means losing out on a sale.
In fact, that very situation came up in a recent QOTD post regarding a Honda Odyssey, if I recall. This seems very odd to me, but maybe other brands have different policies, or maybe it really is just that unusual for people to special order from other brands.
At least from personal experience, I will say that clients who order cars generally are the most excited customers when they take delivery of their new car, because after all, why wouldn’t anyone be excited about a new car that was tailored to exactly what he or she wanted?
Personally, I’ve only ever special ordered one vehicle in my lifetime, and it was only last week that I placed the order, which I’m very excited about. I’m sure plenty of our CC faithful have done this before, so for my question: Have you ever special ordered a new car? If so, what were the primary reasons for it and what was your experience with it like?
While I’ve never custom ordered a new car, I know it tends to be fairly common with some brands, particularly the Germans.
Forgive me for answering a question with a question, Brendan; I’m only doing so because you’re the expert here, and I think you’ll give us an honest answer. Is it really that big a deal for the salesperson or dealership to do a special order, as long as the client is willing to wait? I understand the dealership would probably rather sell something that’s already on the lot (and it would give the customer less time to change his mind and back out), but what are the details around why some dealerships do this, while others try to avoid it? Does it affect the number of vehicles in that dealership’s allotment?
Hi Chris. As you correctly assumed, there is more incentive from the dealer’s standpoint to sell something that is on the lot, as it does indeed make for less of a chance the customer will back out of the deal and not buy the car, and it moves inventory we have.
Of course, more often than you’d expect, customers back out of deals in the day or two between agreeing to buy the car and coming in to sign paperwork and take delivery.
From the customer’s standpoint, they might benefit more on going with an in-stock vehicle, as there are often better manufacturers incentives, in-stock allowance cash, etc.
As far as sales targets, both for the dealer and salesperson, a sale does not “count” until the day in which the vehicle is paid for and paperwork is signed, which cannot happen until the car and certificate of origin is physically here.
But the reality is, a sale is a sale. I’ve never (knock on wood) had anyone back out of a special order. Plus, it’s always nice to start out a month knowing you have incoming order(s).
A related question, and if you don’t want to answer as this is directly pertinent to your income that’s fine. But if so–does special ordering essentially knock out the buyer’s ability to get “a deal” as it were? For a more pedestrian vehicle, it’s fairly easy to play dealerships off each other–the Ford dealership the next town over probably has a similar Mustang in stock to the one at your local dealership, and they’ll negotiate knowing that the average buyer might be willing to sacrifice an option package or a preferred color if it saves them a couple grand. For a highly customized car like a special order MINI, it seems like there’s not really a good way to get any leverage on the dealer to give you a break, especially if there’s an understanding among competing franchises that you don’t negotiate on special orders (that could be construed as collusion, but that’s beside the point). Is the price of a special order that you, essentially, pay list price?
This was a thought that occupied some space in my brain earlier this year as I was contemplating a Clubman as a possible next vehicle for the family, and one of my very favorite options–the blue quilted leather interior–didn’t seem likely to be a stock item. Turned out to be kind of a moot point as a change in our financial situation put a $30K+ new car completely out of reach at the present time, but the question remained.
To answer your initial question as simply as I can, no, special ordering does not have a big impact in the amount one might save versus going with one in-stock.
We typically will offer a several hundred dollar discount off MSRP as a good will gesture on orders if there are no current incentives. As often the case with any new car purchase, even with orders there’s usually negotiating, resulting in the customer who is special ordering to save a bit more. Only on JCWs is it usually a full-sticker order, as they are such limited production and hard to get order slots for.
Unless it’s December, usually rates for leasing and financing are lockable once one’s credit is approved (i.e. there might be 0% financing in March when the order is placed, and even if it is no longer available in May when the car arrives, the buyer still gets 0%).
New and used car programs from the manufacturer and BMW Financial Services change every month. Sometimes credits/rebates are lockable, sometimes they aren’t. Sometimes when they aren’t we will still honor them as we did not have a comparable vehicle that the customer wanted in stock, resulting in it necessary to order.
As far as buyers shopping between dealers and dealers competing with one another for one customer’s business, it happens frequently even with MINI. We get a lot of buyers who cross shop with us and the two other Massachusetts MINI dealers and the one in Rhode Island.
What I find happens a lot is that I will work with someone first, they will go to another dealer purely with the intent of getting a better offer, then come back to me saying they really want to buy the car from me because they like me, but only if we can match or do better than the second dealer’s offer. I’m glad they want to buy the car from me, but it’s still a rat move wasting a person at another dealer’s time just for that purpose.
You must have a lot of patience, Brendan. I could only *aspire* to have ~that~ much patience with people. I’m a reasonably patient individual, but I just don’t think I could deal with people every day as you do and keep a civil tongue in my head. I have worked at a car dealership — PALM BEACH MOTOR CARS near downtown West Palm Beach, FL which has since been sold from the family-owned dealership it was. I worked there in 1999 and 2000. I ‘booked’ repair tickets, however, and didn’t sell vehicles.
My aging ’64 Falcon was a special order at the end of the model year. I don’t know what the old lady had in mind other than she must’ve been a tough cookie to buy such a barebones automobile — even by the primitive standards of 1964. I’m only the 2nd owner and many moons ago I looked up all the various code numbers ‘n’ things on the lil’ square plate inside the driver’s door. Turned out the lady special ordered the car and took delivery on Aug. 3, 1964.
The ‘MINI’s you sell are Mini-Coopers, yes?
Indeed! Car sales is no easy job. Many can do it, but few can last.
It’s a job that’s taught me a lot about myself and my own personal strengths and weaknesses, and one that’s helped me become a stronger person, requiring me to come out of my comfort zone significantly more. Furthermore, it’s one that’s taught me a lot about people in general, for better or for worse.
And yes, MINIs as in MINI Cooper.
Thank you for the insight, Brendan. You brought up some factors I hadn’t thought of, like potentially different incentives. And I didn’t even know there was such a thing as in-stock allowance cash.
Funny you mentioned some people coming back to take delivery days after agreeing to buy the car (assuming it’s in stock and ready for immediate delivery). I have this inexplicable fear of taking delivery of a car at night, under artificial light. I always insist on doing my delivery walk-around during the daytime hours.
Thank you again for the insight and quick reply!
-Chris
” And I didn’t even know there was such a thing as in-stock allowance cash.” Almost all of the big incentive have the fast talker at the end of the ad or in the fine print that you must take delivery from dealer stock, often with a by a specific date. So no agreeing to the deal the last day of the month and then signing the papers and taking delivery on the first day of the next month.
I personally don’t really understand why you wouldn’t take delivery that day in the case of an in-stock vehicle. I always go in near closing time to close the deal so that the F&I guy just wants to go home and not spend a lot of time up-selling the tru-coat.
Just once. A 1980 Pontiac Phoenix. I remember the excitement of running down all the things I wanted to include, then doing the math and figuring out which of them I needed to cross off to stay below my price limit. Some were part of packages, some weren’t, so you sat with yourself and decided which to go for. It was a delicious exercise in consumerism and hours of fun. I could never have found the car I wanted on a lot… four speed manuals were back ordered 6 months, and getting one that wasn’t stripped would have been impossible. I also knew exactly how I planned to customize the exterior, so there were doodads I deleted on purpose.
People nowadays might not be aware of it, but in the ’50s and ’60s, it was more usual to order a car than not. I don’t know the figures, but everyone’s parents in my neighborhood did it. You wanted a yellow car, you didn’t look for one, you just went down to the dealer you always used and ordered it up. Sometimes it resulted in some odd interior/exterior color combinations, but I don’t know that the factory vetted them for taste.
Small town dealers didn’t have many cars on the lot because they didn’t need to. You made the deal and waited by the phone for three calls: 1) Your car is scheduled for production on…. 2) Your car is shipped… 3) Your car is in. Sometimes, people would get down to the dealer and watch their car come off the transporter.
Ordering, your car, not “special” ordering was still very common into the 70’s. Olds marked the turning point by changing their slogan from “Can we build one for you?” to “We built one for you.” The root of much of it was that Chrysler was too stubborn to idle or slow down the plants during the energy crisis. So they started building cars they thought people might want, pushed them out on dealers and moved them with rebates for taking delivery of a vehicle from dealer stock.
Yes the factory vetted the color combinations for taste. Select green for the outside and blue and red were off the table for the interior. Submit an order form with that green outside and red inside and it would get kicked back. However if the customer really truly wanted that green and red combination, they could do a true special order. A special order is one for a combination that is “not offered” but certainly could be built. So you call up the Central Office if you are a Chevy dealer and they submit the Central Office Production Order that overrides the prohibition of red interior in a green car.
The root of much of it was that Chrysler was too stubborn to idle or slow down the plants during the energy crisis. So they started building cars they thought people might want, pushed them out on dealers and moved them with rebates for taking delivery of a vehicle from dealer stock.
The story I read was that Lynn Townsend took a long vacation in Hawaii. Sales fell off a cliff, but no-one in Highland Park had the authority to change the Townsend approved production schedule, and no-one had the stones to disrupt Townsend’s vacation by calling him for approval of a production schedule change. I remember that winter. Chrysler had cars stacked up everywhere, including the Michigan State Fair grounds.
But to set a production schedule you need specs of what you are producing. So someone had to make a conscious decision to sit down and spec out those units that went to the sales bank and enter them into the system.
Also Townsend was uniquely consumed by a focus on sales and production volume. When volume is important to the boss, volume becomes important to everyone. Moving the metal became a near-religion at Chrysler in the 70s, in both good years and bad ones.
It was an accounting shenanigan known as the “Sales Bank.” Characterizing it as stubbornness or a quirk implies that they were acting irrationally. They were very consciously manipulating GAAP results by playing cost accounting games. By overproducing, they were lowering the unit cost of the cars sold within the current quarter. This, of course, creates cash flow problems in the short term and major problems in future quarters as you have a glut of inventory to sell.
I tailor my own old clunkers but if I were to buy a brand new car I absolutely would custom order if I could, that seems like the whole point in buying something that expensive brand new.
Minis aren’t for me, but I have to give the brand kudos, as I have never seen two exactly alike, and it’s incredibly refreshing to see.
That’s the strong point of MINI… Despite that here in Portugal I’ve already seen more silver/black roof MINI’s than I’d like to see…
“I tailor my own old clunkers ”
You’re one – up on me, Matt. I usually impulsively buy a clunker first. The best used- deals on -line are sold within hours. There’s not much time for research.
After purchase, I’ll locate the original brochure on-line to see exactly what extra- cost options my latest treasure has.
Sometimes I’ve been pleasantly surprised. My ’93 Grand Marquis was ordered with all possible options. Someone really went all – out.
But my ’77 Marquis had almost nothing, no luxury options, except for tilt/cruise. This was odd because most those were rare options, even on well-trimmed examples.
I’ve added factory options to many of my cars over the years. The first factory mod I did was on my Pinto, the car I had didn’t have the pop out quarter windows but I found them in a parts car and swapped them over. The most recent case will be on my new to me F150 that didn’t come with a trailer hitch so I went to the self serve wrecking yard on 1/2 price day and found a factory hitch and 7 pin wiring that will all bolt on and plug in in a few minutes. I also picked up a radio with RDS. I’m still looking for some of the factory step bars and the power towing mirrors for my F250.
I did special order a 72 Vega, I’m embarrassed to admit.
Mine was a Panel Express with the optional engine and optional 4 speed transmission. The color was a rarely ordered orange and while the interior was mostly black, the driver’s seat was white (the optional passenger seat was not ordered).
I wanted something different, and got it, but it wasn’t an “exciting purchase”.
I have configured various cars online, and have always thought that it was a “feature” American car manufacturers never really capitalized on…perhaps dealers preferred it that way?
Nope, cheap Dutch-Canadian CRC guy here has never even bought a new car.
Although with my recent used car purchase I did hold out for blue, which is as close as I’ve ever come to special order. 🙂
Like the monk straps and red socks though. My wife rolls her eyes at my red socks and brown brogues, she will not abide monk straps…
Brendan, I’m glad you posted this question and am looking forward to the answers.
When I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s it was fairly common among our family, friends, and neighbors to special order cars from the American companies. One uncle special ordered his Chevrolets not because he wanted to get certain options but because he didn’t want options. For example, he special ordered a 1966 Impala four door sedan with a radio and heater only. No whitewalls, full wheelcovers, PS or PB or auto or V8. That’s the way he liked his cars during those years, stripped down, economical but comfortable (the Impala had nicer upholstery and trim).
I’ve only special ordered one car in my life and the window sticker is attached. Before car guys pounce on me for ordering an inline six cylinder Fox-based Granada, there were special reasons at the time. For one, I had inherited a new 81 Granada with 1,000 miles on the odo and it had the four cylinder and no A/C. By trading it on the new 82 Granada, I got way more for it than I would have for another brand and frugality and economy were chief considerations at the time (and I didn’t trust the new V6 offered by Ford which turned out to be a good decision in terms of reliability but that’s another long story). In any event, the car that succeeded the Granada in my garage was a 300ZX turbo five-speed so go figure☺.
Note that I special ordered this car for a few other reasons. One is that I wanted bucket seats and the automatic on the floor and not one dealer in all of SoCal had such a car. Another is that while I wanted some features of the top of the line model available, I didn’t like its outside trim and decided to order the middle trim model and add some of the top of the line model’s features I wanted such as heavy duty suspension and a fully carpeted trunk (note those listed on the window sticker). Also, I wanted the larger fuel tank (worrying about another OPEC crisis) and no dealer inventory had one so equipped. Finally, the dealer gave me a much better price on a specially ordered car than on the cars that had been accumulating costs setting around on their lots. I don’t know if that is still a factor in the business model you use today?
BTW, only one thing went wrong in the ordering process. While the sticker lists the luggage compartment trim and it was included in the price I paid, the car was not so equipped when it arrived. The dealer had to order the trim package from Ford and it took a long time to arrive. Once installed, it looked perfect so all was well in the end. And yes, the process was fun. The salesman called me the day the car arrived but I couldn’t get over there after work before they closed to pick it up. So I took a flashlight and went over to their facility late that evening, jumped over a chained fence, and looked it over!
There was a reason while many brochures had little disclaimers in the fine print at the bottom of the back page.I’ve seen many noting to be sure to inspect your vehicle when it arrives to be certain that it has all of the equipment as ordered. Or on GM vehicles that situations may arise that an option isn’t available when your car was built, your dealer should inform you of this, and to be sure to inspect the vehicle to be certain it includes all the equipment you ordered.
Brendan, already done with the BMW? Or will this new vehicle be a keeper/second car?
You’ll just have to wait and see 🙂
My wife and I special ordered our 2010 BMW X3 with a 6 speed manual back in 2010. BMW had stopped listing this drivetrain in Canada in 2008 but it was still available if you asked, according to a helpful sales person. Took months to get it too, but it wasn’t any hardship for us or the dealer. Still have it too, it’s a keeper, because BMW simply doesn’t build SUVs with sticks anymore (nor does anyone else, it seems).
Subaru (Crosstrek and Forester) and Jeep (Renegade and Compass) offer them. For that matter you can get one on an Impreza or Wrangler if you’re up for something less CUV-ish one way or the other.
The MINI Countryman does! 🙂
It’s all-BMW X1 underneath, and is very similar in size, offering more interior volume than the first generation X3. I can understand though if the MINI look and styling are not your thing, as far as personal image. That’s why my daily is a BMW and not a MINI.
Do they do a 6 cyl with a stick in any model at all?.
Dont think that Mini dealers hold stock at least not in the UK. I waited for 6 weeks for my Countryman Cooper in metalic blue with white roof and door mirrors. Chelsea Football Club team colours. My sons idea!.
Waiting 6 to 8 months for a car is the big problem in France.
MINIs aren’t available with 6 cylinders.
My Subaru Outback was “ordered”, however it ended up matching exactly one they had in the pipeline already. So it got built a week or two after I placed the “order” and arrived fairly quickly from Indiana. The dealer (Flatirons Boulder) was very happy to place an order and offered the same discount vs what was on the lot and it was fairly substantial, not just a pittance.
I have to say, it was very exciting waiting for the updates and the day to arrive. Going to pick it up was an event in itself. Way better than picking the same car off the lot or as a dealer trade, both of which we’ve done. Maybe it’s the nervousness of being concerned about something not being right – if it’s on the lot you just move to the next one, on a dealer trade no biggie they can fix it, but on something “custom” even though you really aren’t committed until you drive it off the lot, it just seems like it’d be a bigger deal (in my head).
Unless it’s a totally run of the mill car like an Accord or something, I absolutely want to do it again if possible. And for something special like a Porsche (or a Mini), I don’t think I’d have it any other way.
We were in fact about to do so right about now with another vehicle and I had several dealers happy to compete for my business at below invoice pricing, sending me build sheets and order forms (fun for car geeks like us, right?), but in the end we happened across an almost exactly what we wanted slightly used example from a private party that was priced extremely well so we jumped on it. So far so good, you’ll read about it eventually. But if it hadn’t popped up we surely would have ordered and it would have been a thrill!
Brendan, was it casual Friday at South Shore Mini? 🙂 Or do you guys get away with being much more comfortable than the suit and tie crowd on the other side of the lot? I remember my first job after college required me to wear a tie – for an office job in the back of the plant where no client every saw me. It was kind of fun for a week, then I quickly came to the conclusion at the time that if I had to switch employers/jobs, not having to wear a tie every day was worth at least $5000 to me in 1992 dollars. Luckily my second job didn’t require the tie and paid better so it all worked out!
A polo shirt actually is fairly “dressed up” by typical standards at South Shore MINI and the other two MINI dealers I’ve visited. A typical day for me is nice dark or gray skinny jeans, a solid or patterned or marled V-neck, and leather dress shoes or boots. Sometimes I’ll throw my gray blazer on over it or do a scarf with a V-neck. In the colder months I stick to slim fit sweaters. I try to create my own style.
Nice! Clearly you put effort into it. That’s great that you get to do as you choose while still being considered very presentable if that makes sense.
My days of skinny jeans and slim-fit sweaters are well behind me. Nobody wants to see Jimmy in those anymore. 🙂
My skinny jeans are overalls! Nothing skinny about them though.
My skinny jeans weren’t purchased that way, but my ever-thickening middle has rendered them as such.
And the way I dressed in Detroit is the way I dress everyday for work.
I guess I shouldn’t say that I spent a good deal of money in Europe on designer jeans because they had smaller sizes that were actually my “true size” there 😉
Jim, RE your preferred office dress code, I found it interesting that you viewed the tie requirement the way you did, as I had a culture shock of exactly the opposite kind sometime around the turn of the century.
I started my career right around the same time you did, and happened to do so with a very stuffy British-based international insurance brokerage firm. To put it in perspective: Suits were navy or gray, chalk stripes were permissible, but crisper and more pronounced pinstripes might get a sideways look. Shirts were preferably white, although blue was acceptable. Broadcloth was standard, oxford cloth was ok for days without client contact or “casual” Fridays. (Incidentally, casual Fridays meant khakis, still with button down shirts, long-sleeve preferably, blazers were expected, navy, of course.) TIes were rep stripe or patterned with a conservative and small motif. Paisley or “louder” patterns were ill-advised. Shoes were wingtip or cap-toe oxfords in black, brown or cordovan. Penny or tassel loafers were acceptable on a Friday.
In hindsight this would seem nearly fascist, but when the company was acquired in ’99 by a more liberal American concern (gasp), we were gobsmacked to learn of a new “Business Casual” dress code…5 days a week. (In this instance “Business Casual” meant what it customarily means, or khakis and polos, etc.) The thing is even though this was wonderful on paper, I found it very difficult to adjust. I had a long commute and a long work day, and I had gotten used to and comfortable with dropping shirts at the laundry (hangers, heavy starch, boxed if traveling on business) and having suits dry cleaned on a rotating basis. It was easy. It required very little thought. And it was low maintenance for me because I paid others to maintain my work wardrobe. It took me a good while to become acclimated to having to shop outside of uniform standards while still staying within the lines of acceptability and to having to launder and iron things for my 5-6 day work week. I hated it initially.
Now I find it comical that I became so institutionalized, as I like to think of myself as at least somewhat of a free thinker.
Spending most of my career as an engineer for aerospace firms, dress changed a lot over the decades. I wore a three piece suit and tie with cowboy boots in the beginning. What I discovered was that the workers that had to build your wretched designs respected you more if you ditched the coat and tie before setting foot in the factory. Working in non-airconditioned hangars also made dressy clothes impractical.
We used to at least dress up for customer meetings, but senior Air Force pilots started showing up in flight suits instead of dress blues. That was our queue to go casual.
Today, the “uniform” for engineers where I worked seems to be a plaid shirt, jeans and sneakers. Nerd deluxe.
I never did, but my dad special – ordered 4 of the 5 new cars he’s bought in this country. Only his ’84 Olds Cutlass Ciera was off-the-lot.
He always brought me along and I remember every purchase decision he made.
1970 Olds Cutlass. – Special order. Mom insisted on gold paint with a white vinyl top and air conditioning. The dealer tried to steer them towards a full size Chevy Impala that they had on the lot, so equipped. Dad wanted the mid- sized fastback style of the Olds, so they special ordered one. I recall the air conditioning was the below-the-dash dealer add – on. I recall it was cheaper than factory A/C, but, as we found out, did not work as well.
1977 Jeep Wagoneer – Mom wanted green with a saddle interior. Dad wanted a 360 V8 and all options ,except aluminum wheels. There was none on the lot, so they special ordered one. The dealer called back later saying they found one being shipped to another dealer equipped with a 401 V8 and aluminum wheels. My dad took it and the dealer agreed to swap the aluminum wheels for steelies and hubcaps.
The dealer cheated us though. We found out they gave us used tires and rims. A Firestone dealer told us (2 weeks after delivery) our tires had 10,000 miles on them. At the time my dad refused to believe him, saying “its a new car”. But that dealer soon went bankrupt. Turned out they were used tires. Someone on staff got new tires and mags on their Jeep and we got their old ones.
1988 Bonneville – We wanted the sporty SE package, in silver. I was thrilled to find the upgraded 3800 engine (with counter-balancers and more power) was a no-cost-option over the base 3.8 V6, so we insisted on it. This meant a special order because they had none so equipped in stock.
When we got the car home, I found it also had the extra – cost Lighting Package that we had not ordered and not paid for. No one at the dealer noticed. Freebie for us !
1999 Concorde – Special option to get the green paint with saddle interior and all options, including leather. Mom’s decision again, she liked that colour combination.
My first new car was a special order 1985.5 Mustang SVO with competition option. There were only a few left over older models on lots, so I ordered it. Took a few months if I remember right.
In an interesting twist, the new Volvo V90 is ONLY available by special order. The S90 sedan and V90 Cross Country will be stocked but not the regular wagon.
Yes, I recently found that out too. A bit disappointed as the leases are horrible on the V90 wagon (non XC) versus a similarly-priced and equipped XC90 SUV.
The only deal I could get on a V70 was a free trip to Sweden. Might as well special order.
Very true! And from my knowledge, Volvo’s European Delivery program is among the best. I’d say go that route!
And the V90 is awesome, too. Been in one, didn’t get disappointed. It was a fully loaded example though.
I would definitely special order a car, as I like to stand from the pack without being tacky.
The bad in car buying nowadays is the lack of option, even special ordering:
– A Volvo V90 D5 is stuck with an automatic trans, to get a manual you need to get a less powerful D4 (talking about Europe). In a small country like Portugal, automatic transmissions are useless, only making sense in Oporto and Lisbon
-Small hatches are ditching 2 door bodies. The SEAT Ibiza, VW Polo and Renault Clio already did it (VW was dumb, as the target audience for the SEAT actually liked the 2-door more). The only 2 door small hatchback launched in 2017 was the Ford Fiesta, which won’t have a 2 door option on loaded trims. The typical “kid’s first new car” is going through the ditch. Kudos for MINI for not giving up on the 2 door, and sorry for turning this comment into a rant.
Especially since the S90 is now only available LWB and Chinese built.
Special order is just about the only way to buy some models if you insist on manual transmission.
My father, at FoMoCo, was able to lease a car yearly, and so there were several excited early-teen years when he brought home the big showroom book with the fabric samples, etc., and I drooled over that and tried to lobby for my personal choices. At model-year’s end, the cars would be offered for sale to rank-and-file salary/hourly, and his “trade in” always found an eager buyer ’cause he *didn’t* go in for uber-loaded cars or wacky options/colors.
By the time I was able to buy my own first new car, the option lists had shrunk, and if a dealer could get one “close enough,” fine with me. (My biggest haggle in that regard was not paying for the add-on pinstipes I didn’t want.) I still dream of a special order, at least once in life—perhaps my retirement gift to myself one of these days?
I haven’t special-ordered a car, but I remember when I father once did — a 1976 Buick Century similar to the one below.
In 1976, my parents needed a station wagon, but my father hated… hated… HATED bench seats, which came standard on all American wagons at the time. So my father custom-ordered a Buick Century wagon with bucket seats. I’m not exactly sure if bucket seats were an actual option for Century wagons, or whether his car was a one-off oddball, but it was quite unusual in the mid 1970s.
I recall the dealership folks making a big deal over the Wagon With Bucket Seats, and some of my parents’ friends wanted to look inside to see the seats. Wagons and bucket seats were just considered diametrically opposed in those days — most people simply couldn’t imagine who would order such a thing.
The Buick was a great family car, and Dad kept it until he bought a 1984 Plymouth Voyager (with bucket seats).
I hope more manufacturers/dealers follow what Brendan describes about BMW & Mini dealers — I think people would relish the opportunity to personalize their cars, rather than just picking one of dozens of gray blobs off of the dealer lot. Hopefully this trend will catch on.
I think it was my comment about buying a Honda Odyssey that Brendan mentions above. What made that experience particularly startling is that I wasn’t trying to special order something bizarre — I simply wanted an Odyssey model that most local dealers didn’t have in stock. I did eventually find a more accommodating Honda dealer, who ordered one from another dealer about 75 miles away.
The brochure says the buckets were a listed option, but I wouldn’t have guessed that:
Interesting — that’s exactly what it looked like. Same color too. I had assumed that the buckets were technically an option but never marketed… I’m really surprised to see an image in the brochure.
I would really love to know how many wagons were made like that. For that matter, whether other GM wagons were available with buckets. If it was only Buick, then that would explain why Dad bought a Century.
I enjoyed digging up a few facts (OldCarBrochures): in ’76, Pontiac didn’t offer them in full-size; only in intermediate LeMans and compact Astre. Likewise with Chevy. Olds, not at all. In Astre/Vega, of course, they were standard.
Amusingly, before this discussion, I never gave much thought to if/when those bucket seats were available. But now knowing that Buick was alone among full-size 1976 wagons (among GM, and probably among the Big 3) in offering bucket seats, it makes Dad’s choice easy to figure out.
In looking through some other years’ brochures, it looks like the buckets were only available in ’75 and ’76.
Thanks, George, for doing some digging on this — great stuff!
Ford offered buckets on a few wagons in the early 60s. Falcon Squires in 1962-63, and a few big Country Squires in 1963. In fact, in 1963-64, there was even a 4-door hardtop Galaxie XL available.
I always buy used, but…one time I was in a position to get EXACTLY what I wanted. The last Traumwagen, the ’76 Eldorado convertible. I had figured that the purchase of 14,000 top mechanisms by Cadillac in mid ’75 meant something, so I ordered a ’76 in August ’75, from paint chips and a preliminary option list. I even got $1,400 off (before the dealers knew that this was to be the “last convertible”). Got virtually every option, Claret and Buckskin, or maroon and tan, just like the boat tail Packard that Carol Lombard gave to Clark Gable. The anticipation was far better than the actuality, it was so bug ridden that the Cadillac zone manager eventually took it for three weeks to get it in shape. After that, it was trouble free for 100k miles.
It was an amazing car, had some great experiences in it, can’t imagine ever seeing anything like it again.
That’s awesome! You were very lucky to get what would become such a rare vehicle.
I “special ordered” a new Honda CRX 1.5 5-speed in December 1983 but I basically had no choice because they were so popular that they didn’t stay long on dealer floors. What few that were available for immediate delivery had ridiculous surcharges on the price. One dealer quoted a $12,000 price for imm. delivery on a car that had an MSRP of $6,600. When I ordered the car (from another dealer who had sold members of my family a few Buick and AMC cars), I asked for white with A/C and I told the dealer I didn’t want tape stripes or any other fluff. I ended up having to wait until April to get the car and even then I had to accept blue instead of white. The dealer kept the “no fluff” promise and I ended up paying only a little over retail.
I have special-ordered one new car, which was my 2007 Honda Fit. The cars had just been introduced and were in extremely short supply so ordering was the only way. My dealer was allotted 2 per month so it was several months before our car was built and shipped from Japan. We got a few calls offering another car that someone had gotten tired of waiting on, but none was a white Fit Sport with tan interior and an automatic.
Two others were kinda/sorta ordered. My black 85 VW GTI was on the lot but had red/gray seats. I hated the red stripes and wanted the more conservative 2 tone gray. The dealer swapped seats from another car to mine and back.
My 2012 Kia Sedona was a total base model in metallic gray. No power doors was my deal breaker, and one of those turned out to be really hard to find. The dealer had to trade for one that was in northern Illinois and it was a few days before they could get it.
Modern computer inventories make special orders a lot less necessary than the old days, given the fewer choices in colors and option packages that is the norm today.
I factory ordered a 2017 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack back in 2016.
I first test drove a couple of Mustang GTs. The dealers were all for factory ordering as many ‘Stang customers do so.
Then I test drove a couple of Camaro SSs. The sales manager tried his best to discourage me from ordering and tried to pressure me to buy one of the cars on the lot.
Finally I went to a Dodge dealer and they were awesome! I test drove three Challengers in a row and when I decided to order one, the salesman was fine with me configuring my own car. He brought in the sales manager who sat down with us while I told them exactly what I wanted. Of course it didn’t hurt that they were both car guys as well as salesmen.There was no pressure to buy one of the many SRTs or R/Ts on the lot. I ordered a base Scat Pack with no options except for the Shaker hood. No navigation, no leather, no sunroof, base stereo.
This makes the car unusual since dealers almost always order fully-loaded cars. The difference in price is not that evident when people are paying over 60 months or more.
I think the rationale for them letting me custom order is that Challengers are enthusiast cars and if I backed out of the sale – I had to give a $500 fully-refundable deposit – they could easily sell it anyway. The sales manager told me that there are enthusiats who would specifically like less-loaded cars like the one I ordered.
I ordered my car in July and it arrived at the dealer in November. Here it is the day I picked it up:
I have ordered my current and past rides. The first one a 2013 BMW 335i in Space Grey with the saddle leather interior and almost every option. The second one, a 2016 BMW 328i xDrive Sports Wagon in red with oyster interiors and every option possible. Both were extremely positive and seamless experiences.
Great color combinations! Was sad that they discontinued Space Grey on the 3 and 5 Series, but at least the new Bluestone Metallic is similar and quite beautiful.
I must have pictures somewhere! Got both at BMW of Greenwich in Connecticut, the sales staff were ever so accommodating! A shame about the Space Grey indeed. One detail I forgot to mention, upon launching the F30, BMW created the confusing “Lines”: Modern, Luxury and Sport. These were supposed to personalize the car yet no additional details were provided at the moment of ordering. I loved the Modern Line yet noticed the steering wheel was wrapped in a light color leather, not practical. Finally chose the Luxury Line. Its chrome details, wheels, and color scheme received many compliments. Now, the wagon is something I cannot describe. I’ve had people leaving notes in the windshield, purchase offers, thumbs up, myriad questions, etc. Fitted with snow Pirelli Sottozero II RFT’s during winter it’s another story. Oh the evil joy!
Pass them notes on to me I have an rare E91 in Graphite Grey with all options but power seats. Its RHD
I was somewhat intrigued by the “lines” trims, then confused when BMW promptly discontinued them on all models after only 2 years or so in the U.S. I should note that they are now back, at least on the 2018 5 Series.
The F30 wagons are indeed a modern and future classic though! I’m willing to bet the next generation 3 Series is not sold in wagon/touring body style in the U.S.
The current generation 3 Series wagons are very appealing and seem to be having a small resurgence in demand, at least at my dealer.
I special ordered my first new car, a 1972 Cutlass convertible (which is still in the family). I went that route because I figured that I wouldn’t need a/c with a convertible, so I ordered without. What a mistake.
I bought a 2016 Ford Transit Connect Wagon; special ordered because I wanted bright red and ‘ambulance’ doors in the rear no liftgate; fought with just about every ford dealer in Arizona finally got a newbie to place the order; when I called the following week to make sure the order went through found out it did but he didn’t work there anymore … took four months to get delivered (from Spain) dealer said there were labor issues but when we finally took delivery IT WAS AWESOME! Totaled six months later by idiot on cell phone … still grieving for it.
My 1996 Thunderbird was special ordered.
For all my searching, I could not find a black one with the sport suspension (the old Super Coupe suspension) without a moonroof. Jason did not want a moonroof as it was too close to his head. My parents had a ’95 Cougar with a moonroof and it was a non-starter for me.
Several dealers drug their feet about special ordering one. However, a small Ford dealer in Charleston, Missouri, was quite accommodating. Perhaps it helped as they had no Thunderbirds in stock.
So I ordered a Thunderbird with leather, the sport suspension (which included disc brakes in the rear but no ABS), a CD player, and floor mats. That was it. The 4.6 was part of the suspension package and was the key component of what I sought.
It arrived with a cassette player but the dealer had the correct CD unit on the shelf and installed it while I did the paperwork. It had 3 miles on the odometer when I took delivery. I miss that car.
When my wife bought her ’95 Thunderbird, she wanted to special order it, because she wanted an LX with no options other than the V-8. As a frugal Midwesterner, she abhorred such extravagance as the Luxury/Lighting Group, Premium Audio Systems or alloy wheels.
Not surprisingly, she found the dealers around Jefferson City less than a joy to work with, and would up dealing with a St. Louis area dealer instead. When she went to the dealer to special order her V-8 stripper, she saw a V-8 Thunderbird on the lot with some of those dreaded luxuries, and she could buy it for less than a custom-ordered one with fewer options.
She bought it. And over the past 23 years, she’s even come to like the automatic climate control!
I never have, but my dad special-ordered a ’73 Mercury Monterey sedan way back when. The dealer said it was the only full-sized sedan he sold that year with standard hubcaps rather than wheel covers!
Question: Back in the 60’s and 70’s, customers could order their European cars at the US dealer and pick up the car at the European factory. All the paperwork was handled by the manufacturer and many families would add a week or two in Europe as a vacation. Are these programs still available???
I ask because on a recent tour of the VW factory in Wolfsburg, customers were picking up their custom ordered VW cars. It appeared that VW heavily promoted this program to develop a relationship or bond with their clientele.
I wonder if Germans fly to Alabama to pick up their X-model BMW’s or GL series from MB??????
BMW certainly still has a European delivery program, and I assume the other major manufacturers do as well.
This is what I remember as a kid.
…Mercedes & Volvo also both have European delivery options.
You can pick up in Europe if the model is manufactured in Europe for Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and Volvo for sure. I am fairly certain BMW also does delivery in South Carolina for those models manufactured there. Not sure about Mercedes in Alabama.
I believe the Corvette is the only American car that can be picked up at the factory (Bowling Green, Kentucky).
Audi gives you a discount off MSRP (the manufacturer, not the dealer) for taking delivery in Europe, as do Mercedes and Volvo. I think BMW does as well. Porsche charges you extra (of course they do). All of them throw in stuff such as perhaps one and seasonally two airline tickets, at least one night in the hotel across the street from the delivery center, a meal or two and insurance while you drive it around in Europe. You just have to drop it at one of many shipping centers and they then ship it to your local dealer who cleans it again and calls you…Most of the Europeans set it up so a European delivery car does NOT count against their dealer allocations, i.e. they are “bonus” cars for the dealer. So if your Audi dealer for example is allocated five allroads for November, they can order a 6th for you if you want European delivery. Sometimes this gives them more latitude (well, incentive I guess) to be more flexible on price.
The only way I would buy a new car is special order, and the only new car I bought was special ordered.
I had 2005 ML350 that I hated at the time, and it was in the process of failing from being used as a cargo van for transporting insanely heavy shredded memory foam pillows to office buildings for cafeteria sales. Actually I didn’t like it because it wasn’t very Mercedes-like in my opinion.
I wanted to buy a Metris from the moment I heard they were bringing the W447 to this country- I was discussing the order with the dealer before they had even decided on “Metris” and were still calling it “Vito”.
To me, it was my dream car. Large, spacious, upright seating for my FUBAR back, all the Mercedes tech and engineering, none of the bling or frippery- I’m of the W123/W124 school of Benz.
I knew exactly what I wanted- including a green color that is offered in every market but ours and is the only G-Dad color missing from the pallet. I wanted Pax configuration, the comfort seats, the active safety package, cruise control… but no climate control, absolutely no extra chrome trim, and definitely no to floor carpeting. And no, not the Comfort suspension, either.
I was calling the dealer every two weeks until they emailed me the Dealer Order Guide. I configured it in Navy Blue exactly as I wanted it, sent the order to three dealers, used the competition to get my servicing dealer to give me the van at Invoice (I had talked my best friend into buying a Sprinter from one of the other dealers, and I think the price from that dealer reflected that…).
It not only wasn’t in dealers when I placed the order… the order books had not even been opened when I gave them a $500 deposit. It took six months, but I was beyond happy when they called me to tell me my van was in, and I drove off the next day with the third Mercedes-Benz Metris van to be retail delivered in the US… exactly how I wanted and ordered it. For dealer invoice.
Oh, and don’t negotiate with a professional retail buyer.
I special ordered a 1999 Chevy Silverado 1500 2 wheel drive shortbed stepside pickup with the 4.3 V6…5 speed manual, 3.08 axle ratio and LS trim package…power seats…etc.
I ordered it in March of 99 and delivery got pushed back until October….so it ended up being a 2000 model.
I put 146000 miles on it and hydroplaned on a wet highway one day….hitting a tree and totalling the truck…..I still miss it.
1982 — Ordered a Renault LeCar with 2 items:
1. AM/FM/Cassette
2. Roof rack ……. dealer-installed with wood screws that pointed directly down at my skull.
Loved it, kept it 10 yrs / 90,000 mi.
Should have ordered the R5 Turbo. Feisty little Car. Rear-Wheel Drive, No Oversteer LOL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_5_Turbo
Back in the ’70s, when my Dad worked at the local Chev Olds emporium, lots of people special ordered their cars. All that was required was a large deposit, the more unusual the order the larger the deposit. Salesmen used to have to get the sales manager’s approval even then. Mostly it was unusual colour combinations, or manual transmissions in cars like Cutlass’s or Malibus. Once in while a deal would go sour and they’d be stuck with an oddball, like a Z-28 in a horrible light cream green that hung around a long long time.
I recall reading an article, perhaps a GM publication, about all the steps required to pull a special order car once it had been scheduled for production. In those days they used computer punch cards at various stations that had to be removed without disturbing any other cards or missing even one. The resulting mess if went wrong could apparently shut the whole plant down.
In those day options were a la carte and not done by packages so it took awhile to do an order. Then the customer would carefully examine the car once received to insure it had all the options requested. Problems arose if there was any discrepancy, and some options could hold up delivery for weeks. I kind of understand why most mainstream brands don’t encourage this these days.
Sounds like BMW has it sorted out though.
We ordered a ’94 Dodge Grand Caravan and an ’02 Chrysler Town & Country. Had each for 13 and 15 years. On the window sticker of the T&C it said something like “Especially Made for ‘my name”‘.
Our new Honda was bought off the lot. Our sales person explained that Hondas are rationed to the dealers based on previous month’s sales and the dealers only have a color choice but no more. Our dealer demonstrator was silver (meh) but was the only model we wanted. They offered to do a dealer swap for another color but I caved and took what they had. I’m happy with the car but it feels like I am buying a used car.
I enjoy the process of ordering and waiting but I guess I’m not the norm.
Bob
I actually love to special order my cars. I caught the bug as a teenager when my mother wound up ordering a 1983 Cutlass Supreme sedan. She specifically wanted a V8, vinyl seats and no Brougham package, and wanted it well equipped, as she was trading in an Olds Ninety-Eight. So I went through the options list with a fine tooth comb and ordered up a very nice car–Silver Sand, no vinyl roof, super stock wheels, and every power goody on offer. The car was great, and she was very happy with it.
The next time I ordered a car was for myself, and it was our first BMW–1994 325is in Mauritius Blue with Silver Grey Leather. We’ve ordered every BMW ever since, and it’s great because we get the exact color combination we want (the local dealer stocks black, grey, white) as well as the exact options and packages I find interesting. I’ve also ordered my Jeeps, though now the color choices and V8s are pretty easy to come by and the packages serve up everything I want.
Yes – once. October, 1975 I ordered a 3/4 ton Chevy Custom Deluxe C-20 pickup truck.
– 292 six cylinder engine
– 4 speed stick (1st was granny gear)
– Full gauges
– Red w/white cab roof
– Rear step bumper
– Heavy-duty shocks & sway bars
That was it. Period.
Took six weeks. A neighbor who lived down our street worked at the assembly plant and remembered it coming down the line.
I picked it up the day after Thanksgiving 1975 and sold it the day after Thanksgiving 1977! I paid $4250 and sold it for $3600. Don’t recall mileage, but it wasn’t too much.
I did get a cap for the bed, added my own stereo, but that was all.
1994 Firebird Formula with 3 options: electric rear window defogger, body side moldings, and performance tires. Took eight months to get it, and even then, it was built the very last week of 1994 production.
That’s the problem with ordering these days, at least with domestic vehicles. Depending on how strange the combination of items might be, it could be quite a while before it gets scheduled to be built. I will say, however, that it’s not too hard to get a Corvette with an unusual suite of options.
The high-end German products (and others) is a different story. When paying top dollar, it’s a bit easier to get exactly the requested combination. I mean, hell, all someone has to do is look at the order catalog for any BMW, Mercedes, or Porsche. Depending on how much cash someone might have, it’s possible to order something very unique without a lot of effort.
I always sold my cars before an overseas military assignment. A few months before a scheduled rotation back to the US, I’d go to the PX and order my next vehicle out of their catalogs. Ford, GM, Chrysler and AMC all had military sales programs through the PX.
It was the original “no haggle” pricing model. I’d always try to pick up the car in a low tax state near my duty assignment, buy local tags, then drive to my next base and re-tag the car in the state of my assignment once the original tag expired. It was a great way to buy exactly the car you wanted.
My only regret is that I so often wanted a new model in the introductory year only to find out that another year of development would have provided a much better experience.
I have ordered a umber of my vehicles over the years including my 1966 Dodge Coronet 2-door sedan (model #WL21), a 2006 GMC Envoy and my present 2013 Acadia. As for Chrysler in the 1970’s building cars to not shut down the factories, each zone office was given its daily quote of cars of each model. If you did not have dealer orders, you built what was called “sales bank.” I worked in the New York Zone Office in Tappan, New York. I built quite a bit of sales bank in those days. I would often times put on convenience options from the special order catalog that dealers never saw. For example, on the Plymouth Dusters that might be pretty basic, I would still add a trunk light, which was a $5.00 option and I felt would be something that the customer would want to have. When I had to build low-line Dodge Coronet two-door hardtops and Plymouth Satellite hardtops, I would build all with A/C but I also added a vinyl rood (de rigeur in the seventies), AM/FM stereo radio, power windows, bucket seats, light package and bright metal trim on t rear edge of the hood and on the lower edge of the trunk lid, which were standard on the more expensive models. All in all, the car was no longer a “load” but a sporty looking car with features that a buyer would enjoy in a car still costing more than $300.00 less than the high-level model. Some other time I can write about the district managers sitting in the zone office bugging dealers to buy sales bank.
If you’ve got some interesting stories from working in the business back then, we always welcome new contributors.
I have a question. In the attached window sticker you can see the Y14 “sold car” code. I presume this meant it wasn’t going to the sales bank, but does “sold” mean to the dealer, or a retail customer? I’m presuming the former.
This car is from before the sales bank existed or at least wasn’t as active as it was in the era immediately following the oil embargo.
I found the below while browsing…it’s inconclusive as to whether it’s a person or a dealer that ordered it, but does indicate that someone physically picked the actual spec for this build, either with or without a customer present that was directing the process.
People often mistake ordered cars (Y14) for Special Order cars (Y39)
A Y14 car had a deposit put down at time of order, either by a dealership for lot stock or a client ordering the car the way they wanted. The only way that would be ‘special’ would be for the person picking it their way & only to them.
Special Order Y39 cars on the other hand were actually special. A non-stock paint color, an upholstery type normally found on another model, Daytonas because they required outside vender modification, fleet ordered cars like cop cars, etc.
I have seen pictures of stickers that say “Sales Bank” on them. I am not sure when it actually started, and want to say that it actually was in operation before the 1974 recession, but am not sure about that. Chrysler had weathered some downturns around 1970-71 too.
Here is the sticker I found from 1977
I ordered my1983 Buick Skyhawk (would not say special order though) and got automatic climate control and upgraded suspension, 5 speed transmission and overhead cam engine.
I also ordered the 1995 Riviera, which went through the factory twice before I got one, as the first one was taken for “evaluation”.
The Cadillac’s I buy near the end of the year when they are more or less on sale.
Nope. I’m too impulsive. 🙂
I think I once ordered one without actually ordering it. In 2002, I was shopping for a Pontiac Vibe (Toyota Matrix). They were new that year, very popular and a bit hard to get. My dealer didn’t have the combination I was looking for, with a manual and certain packages, but said they had located one at another dealer and could get that one.
I’m a bit foggy on the details now, but I remember the delivery date kept getting pushed back, and it ended up taking about 6 weeks altogether. Some months after I received it, I remember looking at paperwork or something that showed the build date and it was right around the time I made the deal, so my assumption was that this magical “other dealer” didn’t exist and they had just ordered the one I wanted and fed me a line about it.
It didn’t matter in the end, because I got what I wanted and it was a great car that I had for 12 years. I’d probably still be driving it, but my mother passed and I ended up trading both of our cars in for something new.
Usually I’ll order a new vehicle, although on several occasions I’ve bought from inventory if the dealer has (or can find) exactly what I want.
The last car I bought off the lot was an ’04 Subaru WRX STI in WR Blue. Dealer in KC, MO had, like, 10 of ’em in inventory, including one exactly to my specs. Think I paid $1K over invoice for that car. My son, who was 10 at the time, accompanied me and he still remembers flying up I-29 and a semi-twisty part of old US 59 on the ride home.
Ordered my current ride, a ’15 F150 4×4 Lariat SCAB 5.0. The dealer couldn’t find exactly what I wanted and I wanted it spec’ed out just so. Order-to-delivery took about 5 weeks, paid invoice.
Over the years my wife and I have purchased a couple dozen new cars and none of them were special ordered. The closest we have ever come to this is when my wife insisted that her PT Cruiser be purple. The local dealer didn’t have one but the sales person called around (this would have been before dealers put their inventory online) and found one in Indianapolis, about 175 miles away. As others have said we are just too impulsive to wait once we decide to buy, if it is the right color, etc., make the deal and move on.
My late father in law used to buy a new Cadillac every two years or so, and apparently he ordered some of them. I’m not exactly sure what he gained by this, other than knowing that the car was built specifically for him, as all Cadillacs would have had all the bells and whistles during this time period. This was before I met him but I have seen pictures of some of these cars; they all seemed to be Coupe de Villes in some dark color but to each his own.
I have never done it but my grandfather(my father’s dad) did for every car up until his last car(1986 Buick Park Ave) which was bought used.
It was quite common in the 1950’s and 1960’s to order from a dealer and come back and pick it up a few weeks later. You went to a dealer, test drove a car on the lot or a demo car and then went back inside with the salesman and he pulled out a book and you choose what options you wanted in your car and the colors and then signed paperwork and picked it up a few weeks later.
There were cars on the lot for those folks that ether could not wait for a car or those who really did not care if the car did not have a certain option.
As for the Honda Odyssey thing, Honda is a different creature then a lot of other car companies. Long ago Honda watched GM and Ford offer cars with all sorts of different options to try to cater to every possible customer and the result was a lot of the cars sat on the lot because nobody wanted a car with that option or balked at paying more for a car with that option and they lost money simply to get rid of them.
So Honda set up a series of trim levels (DX,LX,EX etc) and listed all the options for each trim level. If you wanted an Accord LX with a sunroof, too bad, you had to ether buy a EX or Special Edition to get the sunroof. most folks looking at Honda products had no issue with that. So if Honda lost a customer or two because they could not get a sunroof on a DX model, they were not going to lose any market share. No I don’t know if Honda adheres to this now but it was like this years ago.
I would expect Mercedes and BMW to offer the ability to special order a car as they are luxury car companies and they cater to a customer that wants a car that is not the exact same as another Benz or BMW
I am not sure if Ford and GM do this anymore for John or Jane off the street customer. I know they do it for fleet sales
Of course they might allow it for their trucks.
After writing this, I got curious and looked at the window sticker for the 1997 Pontiac Trans Sport van I bought in June. The original owner special ordered it because Pontiac did not offer that color in the long wheel base version at that time and also he did not want the power rear quarter windows. He reckoned that they would be trouble and if they died when it was raining then there was no way to close them and your cargo area got soaked. So as all versions of the Trans Sport with power windows had these, one without it had to be made.
I ordered my first car, well, first car I actually owned, a ’74 Roadrunner, just before I turned 18. My mom had to sign the papers, but I put the deposit on it, and paid it off when it arrived FIVE MONTHS LATER, after the order was totally screwed up due to the options boxes on the order form being all wrongly checked. My car was one of the very last ’74’s built, and actually came with an identically colored and equipped ’75 on the same transporter. Like this “Silver Frost Metallic” front one in the pic. Manual windows, heavy duty everything I could put on it. Black vinyl interior 360-4 Barrel, auto, 3.55 gears. After some teething issues, like the wrong sized front wheel bearings being installed at the factory (Yikes!), and a couple of carb adjustments (Taught me all about Carter Thermoquad carbs, so it wasn’t all bad), it was basically bulletproof for the 4 years I had it with the exception of the weak rear end. As far as I could tell, I had the only 360 Roadrunner or Charger I’ve ever seen that didn’t have the indestructible Chrysler 8+3/4″ rear end. My car had a much weaker one that was put into Slant Six cars that I broke about 2 years after I bought it when I put slicks on it to try to crack a 13. I did, at the old Irwindale strip. I barely made it back to Vegas before the rear failed. A trip to the junkyard and I picked out one of dozens of better rears, the new one had the 3.55 gears with a posi and after it was installed, I took it to Irwindale again and ran the best official time on the car, a 13.34 @105.
Out of the dozen or so cars I have owned, I special-ordered four: a BMW M3, a Volvo V50, and two generations of MINI Cooper S (the last being the one Brendan mentioned in his post). At the time I ordered the (E36) M3, there were a handful in the U.S. for demos only, so you *had* to special-order the car. When I got mine 4 months later, they were still pretty rare, even in the BMW-crazy Boston area. The Volvo V50 situation was better, but there wasn’t a lot of stock (again, even in metro Boston), so we special-ordered a car. The dealer was accommodating, but not what I would call enthusiastic.
MINI is one of a handful of car makers that offer a large number of customization options, encourage you to spec out exactly the car you want, and then will happily order the car if they don’t have a matching (or close-enough) one in stock. I think this model works because they are selling a specialized product to buyers who have somewhat non-mainstream tastes in cars and are willing to wait for what they want. They have set up sales and production processes to match. It certainly worked for me (twice in fact, 15 years apart).
In a commodity space like mid-sized SUVs and sedans the distribution system is geared towards volume and speed, where buyers are most often looking for a good deal on “something” they can drive out of the lot on the same day. I think this is rational behavior on the part of the buyers and sellers, but it reflects the commodity nature of the product. It results in limited configurations and special orders really don’t make much sense in that slice of the market.
By the way, Brendan told me I was his first CC client. I know there are a lot of curbsiders in southern New England. Please stop by South Shore MINI and say hello to Brendan; maybe take a test drive. They have a nice bulldog that roams the showroom. If the inventory is out your price range and you’re feeling lucky, I still have a 2003 Cooper S available with only 247K miles and only a little corrosion…
Thanks Read! Glad it was as an enjoyable experience for you as it was for me, and I hope your first month with the 2018 Cooper S is going great! Feel free to stop by anytime and we can shoot the breeze!
I’d really enjoy the opportunity of getting to work with any other Curbsiders!
I didn’t specially order my Focus, but when I sold Ford and Lincoln models we would regularly order vehicles for customers.
You want car ordering gone wrong stories?
I think my Grandfather special ordered his 59 Plymouth Savoy. I rode along to pick it up, and remember a last minute mad dash at the dealer to swap wheel covers with another car they had on the lot.
My Aunt special ordered her 70 AMC Ambassador. She never noticed, and the salesman did not remind her, that vacuum wipers were still standard on AMCs. She was furious when she discovered the vacuum wipers, but nothing could be done about it. She was stuck with the car.
My 85 Mazda was not a true special order, but the dealer had to go from Grand Rapids to Traverse City to get one in the color, trim level and lack of options I wanted. Great car, but the goniff charged me sticker for that 85, when the 86s were coming out and the dealer should have been delighted to get a top trim level, but manual trans, manual steering, no a/c car off the lot.
My greatest concern with ordering a car is, it could arrive giving every indication of being a POS, and I’d be stuck with it. My oft mentioned 78 Zephyr was on the lot when I test drove it. I noticed several things amiss with it, but foolishly (this was my first car bought new) assumed all the issues I noticed would be addressed under warranty.
Now, if I notice something significant amiss, I walk away, like the new 99 Hyundai Accent, with a bearing knock. Can’t do that with a special order.
When I bought the VW, I had to check with 3 dealers to find one in the right trim, right engine and right trans in the right color. All the other dealers offered to find exactly what I wanted, but experiences over the years told me to find what I want on a lot so I can get my finger bones on it before I sign anything.
My father leased a ’76 Ford Elite in May ’76. The car was oddly equipped. Then, I found the build sheet. It had been built in August ’75! Where & why was it kicking around for 9 months? It had a 460 with dual exhaust, the luxury interior (twin comfort lounge seats, nicer trim etc) Autotemp AC, Cruise, Tilt, dual racing mirrors, but no rear defrost (in Canada!),
the standard suspension, manual everything, an AM only radio and no light package or interval wipers!
I always thought the extra $100 the Autotemp cost over manual AC would have been better put towards power windows.
Our resident Torino experts like Bill Mitchell et al, will tell you that no matter what trim level any ’72-’79 FoMoCo intermediate had, it came with no courtesy lighting whatsoever (except for one cheap plastic dome light) unless the “Light Group” was ordered. And the dealer in town never ordered it, ever. They would have Elites, Gran Torino Broughams, and later downsized T-Birds there with power everything, full Brougham, and not so much as a glove box or trunk light. I also asked about getting interval wipers put in, clearly shown as available in Ford’s dealer accessory catalog. The lying scumbag dealer principal said it wasn’t possible, when even as a 15 year old I knew it was a simple matter of changing the wiper switch & plugging in the control box between that and the wiper motor. Plug and play. I also told the old man he ought to get an AM-FM stereo-8 track installed, as well as a rear defogger FFS! Well, the lying scumbag dealer said they were out of AM-FM units, so only an AM-tape was possible. (I thought FM was more useful than even a tape unit, AM sucked!). The so called defogger they installed was a black blower unit with a cheesy underdash knob switch on a bracket, couldn’t even be bothered to put in the proper in-dash flick switch.
I was so Po’ed at the lack of courtesy lighting that I became bound and determined to add it. I gradually added the whole package to the car by visiting local salvage yards and getting the pieces ala carte.
One time, the hood light. Another visit, the under-dash lights, then the trunk light, glove box light, etc.
Most of the harnesses were already there, so it was plug and play. I even put in the ashtray light.
The only difficult install was the dual beam map light. Firstly, they were hard to find,
ironically I got one out of a wrecked Maverick.
I had to splice in a hot wire under the dash and fish it up thru the center of the headliner with a coat hangar, and then connect it. But in the end I had my light group!, except for the lighted visor vanity mirror, which I was never able to find. I also was never able to source an interval wiper setup.
In my dreams I have, Brendan! I thoroughly enjoyed reading these responses. Great QOTD.
Cheapskate here: I’ve never bought a brand-new car, let alone special-ordered one. The only car in our family that was ever special-ordered was Mom’s ’74 Nova hatchback. The only options were a radio, automatic transmission and whitewall tires. Yes, whitewalls and dog-dish hubcaps. Not a bad look, actually with the “Harvest Gold” exterior and off-white bench seat-equipped interior. This was at the height of the Great Brougham Epoch, when a vinyl roof and fake wire wheel covers were almost mandatory. The result of Mom’s frugality was a car that had a real no-nonsense stripped-down appeal to it. It was the rare car at that time that didn’t have a silly, overdressed look to it. Of course, 1974 was a terrible year to buy an American car, mostly due to the primitive emissions controls and the seatbelt interlock system, both of which Mom chose to retain because she didn’t want to get arrested and thrown in jail…
I can see the appeal, and would definitely do it, but I’m pretty sure I may never order a brand new car, at least in the foreseeable future, as the value is not there.
And I’d want to collect it from the factory, after a detailed tour!
Not sure if it was custom ordering the car (or truck rather), but more of having in stock on some dealer lot in the area the exact model of Ford Ranger I wanted: The final M/Y 2011 (for retail… fleet went to 2012 for Orkin Pest Control or something, I don’t know) Ford Ranger Sport (with the hillbilly white raised lettering on the tires unfortunately… I’m sorry but imo that’s just what it screams to me as) SuperCab in gun-metal gray with tinted windows and a sliding rear window; 4.0L, 5 speed auto. with A/C and nothing else for options. Simple, functional, powerful, and breezy cool inside. You could flop down inside it, rest a can of Coke in it’s centre console, man-handle that column shift lever to D and with one arm comfortably perched on console and the other at 12 noon, just torque yourself away from stop. Loved that truck. Terrible mileage.
Aside from the white-letter-wall tires and corny fake hex-riveted plastic cladding fender flares, it was a perfect compromise for me for what I had traded in for it — my beloved yet high maintenance Mercedes C-class coupe Kompressor.
That’s about as close as I will ever special order a car as far as I can foresee. After I peaked with owning the coveted German Benz, car ownership has devolved from enthusiasm to appliance-appreciatism. With the Benz, I realised that a car is a car is a car. It is really nothing more than sheet-metal, couple bars of cast iron, and a lump of metal at its beating core. I could only smother so much love and sentiment out of the car before it became a black hole of futile conquest.
But, of course, as is this website’s mantra: every car has a story, and that’s when it becomes more than a sum of its parts.
I want to drive a 1979, Green Plymouth Caravelle (Diplomat) with a lean burn 5.2 for the first time… that is my future special order, me thinks.
My relatives ordered every car, being a Mopar family the 1957 orders gave the local dealers the most problems. My aunt Louise traded every 6-7 years (always Chrysler New Yorkers) She had a ’51 NY 2 dr ht to trade on a ’57 NY 4 dr ht, problem was she had vacationed in New Orleans, and saw the deep blue metallic and white combo she wanted. We thought the car companies had regional colors not available everywhere, she also wanted leather interior, full power, A/C, HD suspension, and 2x4bbl 392 Hemi, basically everything she could get. Our family and the dealer had been friends for years, but Chrysler said no at first on the color, after some “discussion” back and forth, where the dealer threatened to fly to New Orleans and buy one, she got her car. I saw why she wanted the color it was deeper and richer looking than all the ones in blue I saw in California. She was charged extra for the color because it turned out it was actually a special order blue a customer in NOLA wanted, still it was worth it (I think the code was 999 for custom colors). The New Yorker came in as ordered except the dealer had to put the 2x4bbls on. She only drove it a few weeks before she realized she loved it, she went back and ordered a matching New Yorker convertible with the same accessories. she was only 4′ 8″ tall and about 90 pounds, but like all family members she knew how to drive and loved doing it at high speed. Both of those came in fairly rapidly (she also paid cash) when she decided to trade in 1965 she was told New Yorker convertibles were no longer available, she bought a New Yorker 4 dr ht and told the dealer “You have 2 door New Yorkers, Ill buy a 300L convertible, get the New Yorker parts and change it.” She let them leave the dark blue leather 300L interior, engine and trunk alone, the grille, side trim and Tail lights were changed to the early “frost” look NY units. Instead of trading in, I bought both of her ’57’s. Plymouths were another matter. My aunt and Uncle, Emma and Jim ordered a Belvedere 2 door SportsCoupe in turquoise with white roof and trim, fully loaded with A/C and the wing tip bumpers, problem was Plymouth had so many orders they were behind schedule. The dealers demonstrator was a gold and white 4 dr sedan, fully loaded with A/C and wing tip bumpers. After 8 months of waiting he offered his demo at a discount price with 3000 miles on it (and every defect and problem fixed by his shop) so they had a near perfect ’57 Plymouth kept in the family until 1999. In 1959 the same aunt Emma ordered a Dodge Custom Sierra Super D-500 in deep blue and light blue with every accessory including dual A/C, and 6way power swivel seats, I loved that wagon. One cousin and his wife ordered a ’58 Imperial Crown in white with a mint green chiffon cloth interior and all accessories. In a surprise move in 1960 he sold the ’58 Imp and bought her an exceptional ’57 Cadillac 60 Special in white with mint green interior. It was years before she confessed why they changed. She told me the Imperial was so fast so easy she had her license lifted, twice, the Cadillac was easier to drive slower. In 1957 a dozen other Chrysler products were purchased by relatives, all ordered.
In 1962 family friends ordered a ’62 Olds “98” holiday coupe, fully loaded and with A/C, they flew back to Lansing and walked the line to watch the car being built and drove it back to California. It was sea foam green inside and out. Two problems, the A/C didn’t work, and it had hubcaps instead of wheel covers. Back in California the A/C was fixed, and they found out the wheel covers had a strange attachment
and had to be pulled out to check air. They asked if I had any that would work. I had a stock set of ’59 Bonneville hubcaps from one of my cars, they went on the Olds and worked well. Some cars just come together right. That Olds was the fastest Olds I EVER encountered and lasted several hundred thousand miles.
Personally I haven’t ordered a car for myself but have helped others order, and in 1966 a best friend ordered and gave me a new ’66 Cadillac deVille convertible equipped exactly as I would have done. But that’s another story.
My second story, while I didn’t order it, I bought it from the first owner who did.
It was a ’76 Olds Omega Coupe (non-Hatchback). He wanted an SX, but hated the lower body graphics. The Olds system didn’t allow him to delete the graphic, but he WAS able to order every SX item ala carte, including the FE2 suspension, buckets, rally wheels and so on. He also got the 260 V8 with the B&W T50 5-Speed ( a disaster BTW), and AC & light package. Picture this car in solid black with white guts. It was very unique, and I’ve never seen another like it since.
Even then, I had to go out and find an AM-FM radio to put into it.
The thing I remember most about it was it had a strange steering column, with a lever sticking out the the right side of it that had to be pushed down to get the key out.
FWIW the owner was a school teacher, and had bought a ’79 White-Gold Hurst Olds Cutlass W30 to replace the Omega.
The 82 Granada I special ordered (mentioned above) had a button on the steering column that you had to push to remove the ignition key – I forgot all about it until I read your post. The second owner called me when she got it home because she could not understand why the key could not be removed and thought something was broken! BTW, the new December issue of Collectible Automobile has a piece on the Omega.
I’ve only bought one brand new car ever, and it was by no means anything I would have ordered. I generally buy off-lease or certified pre-owned, being of thrifty Irish Catholic stock. This is a buying habit that was adapted from my father’s methodology. He was very briefly in auto sales prior to settling on insurance as his primary career, so he was hip to the ways of the industry (one of his best friends also owned a dealership, so he had somewhat of an inside track). He’d always buy off the lot, very often something that had been there for a little while. He was also leasing back in the early 70’s, long before most people did so, as he’d write off the associated costs as a business expense. It wasn’t until the late 90’s, when he returned to leasing (as did many others at the time) that he began actually specifying things like color and trim, as there was no longer any incentive to pick from dealer stock under those circumstances. We never had a car in our family fleet that was more than 4 years old, and for the most part everything in the driveway was up-to-the-minute in vogue for the time, but we did occasionally have either an oddball mix of options or sometimes very highly optioned cars bought with a few thousand miles on them as former dealer demonstrators.
My grandfather, on the other hand, always ordered his cars according to my grandmother’s specifications, usually paying close to sticker, minus any rebates or incentives that were advertised at the time. That practice also led to some oddly equipped cars, as he apparently ordered to a price point but was influenced by Granny’s particular must-haves. This meant that occasionally an otherwise highly optioned car might be missing a few otherwise expected options like a rear defroster or delay wipers. As previously mentioned, I still have the window sticker for the last car he ordered, which I’m now driving. The sticker proclaims across the top, “Built Especially for” my grandmother. As the car was a first year model, and happened to be Motor Trend’s “Car of the Year” that year, coupled by the fact that he ordered it with optional Special Order paint color, I suspect he paid pretty darn close to the price on the sticker.
This dichotomy in buying practices between the two generations of my family resulted in more than one spirited discussion over holiday dinners, incidentally.
Coincidentally, the only vehicle I ever special ordered was a green MINI Cooper S! But that was back in ’03 when they were a hot commodity, didn’t get much if anything off sticker IIRC, but it had exactly what I wanted!
Felt like it. When I bought the ONION, I wanted the base model four door with automatic and air. I chose the color and went with one that had floor mats for a splurge.
I didn’t have to special order to avoid things I didn’t want. If the dealer hadn’t had it, it would have been swapped with another dealer. No remote locking, power windows or special packages.
Hated the operation of the manual I drove. Had it been as slick as the one in my 95 SL1, I could have saved the money I spent for the automatic.
As it was, mine was apparently a dealer trade from Saturn of Santa Clarita, which explained most of the 23 miles on it when I made the purchase.
A very honest car. Functionality. Simplicity. No nonsense.
If I could feature delete, console delete and connectedness delete, I would special order my next car. I just don’t need all that “stuff”.
But then, there’s not much of a market for customers like me.
I currently have a Miata mx5 on special order. I’ve asked if they have an estimated delivery time. They don’t return my calls!
I just ordered my 2019 Dacia Sandero in left-hand drive.
My Chiron will be having custom nutria-scrotum seats, with alcantara accents and aluminium badging. It’ll match my Veyron and beach-front Jersey condo.
Back around circa 1965-66 when we were living in Panama, my father’s friend special ordered a pale yellow Dodge W200 4WD 3/4-ton pickup, flew to Michigan to pick up the truck at the factory and drove it all the way to Panama where he lived. I imagine it was good shakedown cruise.
I wonder if you can still do that? Order the car and pick it up at the final factory assembly point (assuming in USA).
Like JP, I ordered my 2007 Fit Sport, as they were in demand. I specifically wanted a manual, and I wanted it in blue. Since this was my first NEW car, I was NOT going to settle for anything less than what I wanted. It took about 3 months to arrive. I got notifications as to when a VIN was assigned, when it was shipped, and finally, when it arrived. I had it until December of 2011, when I was T-boned in a hit & run accident. Once again, I ordered a 2012/manual/blue, and had to wait about the same length of time; however, this time, I got a dealer swap, which arrived w/ 183 miles and a full tank of fuel! 🙂
I haven’t, but my dad did once…early 90s Saturn SL1, moonroof and 5 speed, power locks but no power windows (he forgot to check that box). It was his “oops” so he just lived with manual windows for 150k miles.
My parents were buying a 76 Cutlass S, the dealer had window stickers on the wall of the showroom for incoming cars that they had ordered, and my parents settled on that one. When it came in, it had Super Stock wheels, which they didn’t want, so the dealer switched them out for steel wheels and wheelcovers, it had body color sport mirrors which they didn’t particularly like, no tilt, Omega steering wheel, and a rear defroster that never really worked from day one. Why bother ordering a car if they just improvise at the factory?!? GM at its finest.
I special ordered my 2011 Mustang. I ordered it in mid August 2010, and it arrived at the dealer on September 22. First year for the new 5.0 V8, which I was pretty excited about. It was the first brand new car I’ve bought, after owning many used ones in the previous 23 years of car ownership. Ordering was the only way I was interested in buying one. If you are going to spend the money, why not wait a little while and get a car made especially for you? It maximizes the new car experience! I still have the car and it has been a really good car.
I got a GT, manual tranny, base 3.23 rear end in Kona (dark metallic) Blue with Saddle (dark tan) leather interior. Unfortunately modern cars don’t allow you to make very many equipment choices. I basically got the Premium package (leather, nicer interior trim, nicer stereo) with no other options except the security package (alarm, wheel locks). You could also get an even fancier stereo with in dash screen and navigation, the Brembo Brake Package (better brakes, larger wheels), a glass roof and a couple of other larger wheel options. I wanted the 18 inch wheels, which were only available with the base wheels.
The first one was not really a factory build order, but the blue ’84 Toyota base model 4×4 pickup was on the boat. The dealer reserved it somehow. A/C was a fully integrated kit installed at the dealer.
The only true factory build order was essentially a “fleet” of one white C1500 Work Truck in 1993. A Chevy pickup probably had as many individual options as a MINI, just fewer appearance and more things like axle ratios. After not finding what I wanted in stock anywhere in California, salesman suggested a factory order. We sat down and equipped the truck. Even a spare wheel and tire were optional. It wasnt an oddball, so no deposit was required. The only problem was the 13 weeks to get it instead of the promised 6-8. There was no strike at the factory and I was not told that any of the options delayed the build.
I have ordered the last 7 new vehicles I have owned. I prefer black vehicles with manual transmissions, among other things like wheel choices, etc. To get what I want I always have to order. I like V6 engines, too. It looks like I won’t be ordering a new Mustang since Ford thinks I don’t need a V6 any more. I know a lot of people like four cylinder cars and that’s OK with me. I have owned a couple myself, but no thanks.
The first car I ordered was the ’79 Malibu coupe that I still have. Then as now I knew exactly what I wanted: V8, four speed, bucket seats, rally wheels, gauges, sunroof, AC, AM/FM, power steering and brakes and the F41 handling suspension. Oh, yeah, black paint, too. I knew I would never find that one on a lot, so I ordered it. When shopping dealers I had to educate a few salesmen as to what was actually available on that car. The dealer it was ordered from wanted a $500.00 deposit because he didn’t want to get stuck with one with a four speed. That car and I have been through a lot together and I still drive it . Maybe I should do a COAL on it.
I’d love to see that COAL. It’d be a nice counterpoint to the one I wrote about my ’79 sedan with rather fewer options (267 V8, A/C, AM/FM, automatic).
Come to think of it I didn’t even know you could get a factory sunroof on those cars!
Yes, I should get around to writing that one up. I have had a lot of great times with that car and still do. It also saw me through the most Hellish part of my life and back into the good times.
I have only seen one other with a sunroof and two with four speeds. I have had lots of offers to sell it over the years, but it’s not going anywhere.
You have probably guessed that is the black car in my avatar
Although the 267 has served me well, I now wish I had opted for the larger V8. When I ordered it I was trading in a 4 cylinder Mustang II and was afraid of the difference in gas mileage.
My first new car was from dealer stock; a 1973 MGB Blaze (red-org)/Navy Tourer. The only other MGB in stock had a light tan interior, and since I’d be using the car driving back and forth from work, a dark interior was a must. Color and option choices were pretty limited anyway, to overdrive/non-overdrive xmsn, and disc or wire wheels.
But because the Canadian railways were on strike, the cars were stockpiled at their port of entry and nothing was being transported to the five (5) Detroit area BL dealers.
I was eighteen (18) years old when taking delivery of that MGB on the Friday of Labor Day weekend, 1973. It would be twenty-eight (28) more years before I bought another new car…
Sometime in late October, early November 2000, I had my mind made up that I had to have a new BMW M Roadsters, presumably, with the just released for 2000 S-54 M3 engine. Nobody was sure they’d be produced, but I was hopeful, and gave the local BMW dealer’s salesman my “verbal order” for one. As my wife & I had just gotten a CPO (Certified Pre Owned) ’99 M Rdstr (1-1/2 yrs old w/5400 miles) my intention was taken seriously.
When the Detroit Auto Show rolled around in January 2001, and BMW had a new M Rdstr on display, I knew we were in business!
It wouldn’t be until July of that year before we’d get an “allocation” but upon finding out that the car would be built in August (in Spartanburg, South Carolina) and that we were already planning to attend BMW’s Roadster Homecoming there, we elected to do a “factory” delivery at their Performance Delivery Center, the day before the HC01 event.
Our 2001 M Roadster was “special ordered” with about the only factory options available for it; metallic Steel Gray paint, 2-tone gray & black interior, and the factory-fitted removable hardtop. At delivery, there were six (6.0) miles on the car__the delivery center was across the street from the manufacturing plant).
We took delivery on the Thursday before Labor Day weekend, one day before the Roadster Homecoming party, in what I can only describe as the ultimate event souvenir!
Sixteen (16) years later, we still have both of those M Rdstrs (currently at 96k & 48k miles respectively) and a few years ago (02/14) I added a ’99 M Coupe to the mix.
In the meantime, my wife has special ordered and taken delivery of four (4) other new BMWs; three (3) were X5s (’02 4.4 iS, ’05 4.4iS & ’11 35iS) and a single 5-Series sedan (’08 535xiS) and though they were all delivered at our then local dealership’s showroom, they were each memorable in their own way.
For a car-guy (and his accepting wife) the whole car buying/decision making process; deciding which model__based in part on budget constraints__mandatory and desirable options (also budget-driven) making “the deal” with some haggling thrown in and locking the sale, the anticipation, following the manufacturing process, waiting upon arrival__giving the “just received” vehicle a cursory inspection (pre-delivery prep and taking tons of pictures, of course) and then going in for the delivery process. It’s all kind of a big deal for us, with a celebratory dinner out afterwards. Coming out of the restaurant and forgetting__or pretending__which car you’re looking for; it’s all part of the fun!
I can’t wait until the next time!
As a customer, I have ordered 4 vehicles—2004 Dakota CC Sport, 1998 Dakota CC Sport, 1993 Intrepid ES, and a 1991 Dodge Monaco LE. When I worked in car sales during 1993-95, I ordered quite a number of vehicles, especially Jeep Cherokees, to meet budget constraints of my customers. The dealer I worked for (Dodge, Jeep/Eagle) usually ordered loaded-up vehicles which were not within reach of the younger folks. The ordered cars were never sold at a premium vs. the in stock vehicles—though I understand some stores did try to use that tactic.
Told this before, of Grandparents ordering a ’69 Electra 225 Custom, 4 door post sedan, with no A/C, manual windows, but cruise and towing package.
When it was time to trade in by ’72, A/C was standard on ‘Deuce 1/4’. Appraiser was amazed to see a ‘stripped’ Electra.