| This will get a lot of well-deserved criticism. However, I think there’s potential in this idea to overall benefit the consumer. The cost of options sometimes includes the fact that the carmaker has to provide a separate SKU. Does a heated seat cost a lot in raw materials? No, not at all, but a carmaker might have to lose time on the assembly line changing the line to build a different variant. Or the dealer might lose a sale if they don’t have the customer’s desired trim level in stock Not only that, differentiating optional features are revolving more and more around software (e.g. autopilot). As long as this doesn’t become confusing or excessively expensive for the customer, it could actually be a win-win. Presumably, the base model could be cheaper, and the consumer could upgrade the car later. Or, the consumer could pay for subscription features when their job situation is good and cut them out down to basic transportation if it’s not so good. The consumer would also not be stuck with options that they decide later that they don’t use often. Maybe they wouldn’t be stuck with entire options packages that they have to go with just to get the one thing they want. The devil is always in the details, so it could go either way, it just depends how fair the pricing ends up being. If you don’t think people will buy it, might I interest you in purchasing my new TV show for only $3 an episode? You’ll own it forever! |