Always have extended discussions like this well before stepping foot on a dealer's lot. If a couple is not on the same page, an observant salesperson will "divide and conquer."

Become as knowledgeable as possible about the vehicles you are considering. Learn about the options and features. Read reviews. Discuss wants and needs.

Or just buy his and hers cars.

It sounds like the wife has already made her mind she wants the option, so I wonder why she asked her husband in the first place! And it sounds like the wife is buying the car for her use and not as a family car. If I were the husband, I would just keep quiet and let my wife waste her money.....as long as it's not coming from some common family-use account I wouldn't care!

Talking about options, Lee and Philip, one thing that really annoys me is when manufacturers package options. Nissan are one of the worst, and it looks like Mazda is learning fast from them. For examplee, I'm eyeing a 2009 Mazda 6 GT. To get the premium stereo (and I love stereos), one has to buy a moonroof and XM radio as part of the package! I don't care for either!!!!! (I know I can install a better stereo aftermarket for cheaper, but I like the clean integration a factory stereo offers.......)
And guess what? If someone wants navigation for the '09 Mazda 6, they have no choice but to get the stereo/moonroof/XM option! What nonsense! That's almost $4000 worth of options, at least $2000 of which the guy choosing navigation might not want!

Lee and Phil, are there genuine manufacturing reasons why manufacturers package options, or is it plain-old extortion?

Philip, why was that dude going shopping for a car with my wife? I have to find out what she was doing in Denver. Because either that was her, or her doppleganger.

My wife's favorite refrain, "I WANT ONE WITH NO TOP!"

Its like trying to control a child in a toy store. Any other situation she's an intelligent, reasonable person. Talk about buying a car, and she turns into some sort of ebulient zombie..."NO TOP!...NO TOP!.......BRAINS!"

BA: It is pure economics, for three reasons.

First, by limiting the number of variations, the actual cost of production can be better controlled.

Second, manufacturers take cues from what people order. If they find that the majority of people are ordering certain option combinations, then they might package them together and eliminate other options.

Finally, they might package more profitable options with ones that are popular with the buying public. For example, on the Mazda6, it might be that the stereo is popular, but they make lots of money on an unpopular sunroof. So they group them together to force people to buy the more profitable sunroof. I am not saying that is the specific case with the Mazda6, I was just using it as a hypothetical example.

BA: You're sure right about Nissan packaging incredibly expensive options together. The dealers themselves sometimes hate it, because a lot of people buy the base model rather than upgrade to expensive options that they don't entirely want. The dealer I dealt with, for example, said that he could sell Bluetooth as a stand-alone option all day long, but Nissan won't do it that way.

The trick is to remember that package prices are negotiable, just like the price of the car itself. That's why TMV is a good thing -- gives you the invoice price and TMV on all option packages.

You guys are also missing floor plans and stock.

if you have 2 engines, 2 tranies, 2 basic packages, and 6 colors, thats already 48 different cars if you want to cover each option.

by reducing any of those you grealty reduce 'stock'. say you only stick with one engine, and one tranny. Boom, all of a sudden the number of possible chocies gets narrowed down to 12.

Thanks for the info, Lee and Joanne. Opfreak, I think Lee covered floor plans and stock when he said "limiting the number of variations, the actual cost of production can be better controlled".

Well, opfreak, of course I understand the issues of stock, floor plans and the economics. It's the same reason why McDonalds have relatively limited options of burgers.
Whith robots doing most of the manufacturing on assembly lines, I can't imagine minor options like moonroof and premium stereo would require a different floor plan or assembly line.
But what bugs me about Mazda and Nissan is that their competition more flexible with options so I don't see why they can't. I think the real motive behind their packaging options is greed/profits. Mazda's case is even more ludicrous because the Mazda 3 offers pretty much the same options without ridiculous packages, so I don't see why the Mazda 6 can't.......unless, of course, Mazda intend to make the options more flexible for the 6 as the life cycle progresses??!!

BA: I believe opfreak is talking about dealership floorplans. If the dealership wants to represent the range of options on a particular model so that there's a stronger chance of having something any given buyer will want available in stock, there would be 48 combinations (and 48 cars needing to be stocked by the dealership) for opfreak's first example, but only 12 cars for the second example.

Opfreak, I am not so sure this is dealer driven. In the old days, dealers knew what options their client base were most likely to pick and chose their inventory accordingly. Also, if the exact options you wanted were not on the new car lot, the client could simply fill a check list of his options and order directly from the factory. My view is that this is simply price gouging by the manufacturer and not the dealers. Please note that one of the big successes of the Mini is the fact you can go to a dealer like in the old days and order exactly the options you want. The buying public will always prefer the ability to pick and chose options on a big purchase like a new car and the dealers are well aware of this.

Jerrywimer, I would think that the dealer does not need to stock all 48 combinations on his lot. He can stock only the relatively popular ones. Let's say I want a fully loaded model with the manual. But the dealer has only a fully loaded automatic and a stripper manual. All I have to do is to test-drive the stripper manual and loaded auto to have a good idea of what the loaded manual would feel like. After the test-drives I can order the loaded manual from the factory! Simple!

I think karjunkie and Lee (3rd reason) are right: it's just the manufacturers trying to make money by forcing unwanted options on customers. Like Joanne said, even the dealers hate these "packages".......