When did full factory customization go away?

[01rangerxl]

Blaming the government or emissions laws feels good but it is just plain false as the real answer is that offering less trim and powertrain options makes more money due to economies of scale. A lot of powertrain options went away because it's very expensive to design, continuously update and manufacture a bunch of engines rather than just a couple or even one. Back in the 70's GM had Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac designed V8's that while in many cases were near identical but really were all separate and distinct and required a ton of resources just to stay up to date with changing technology. Engines get revised, updated all the time and GM decided it was a waste of money to maintain all these separate engine lines and just made the SBC the corporate small block V8 and dropped all the rest. Today all the OEM's operate like this, Honda for instance makes the J series V6 as the only engine they offer with more than 4 cylinders.

The reason you can't pick out whatever bolt in powertrain that is currently offered on a different vehicle is absolutely due to regulation. Not saying it's good or bad, but I couldn't go order say a Bronco with a 5.0 even if Ford had the stuff in the parts bin to do it. Before emissions regulations, if you had the money the manufacturers wouldn't necessarily ignore those kinds of requests. Hennessey plans to build 24 5.0 Broncos to the tune of $225K each, so it is doable, but Ford isn't going to do it for you.

Economies of scale is a reason why factory customization in general is rare, but there is also a specific reason why powertrain customization went away decades before that.

 

[raaizin]

My kid was asking about this when I mentioned that cars could have all sorts of options straight at the factory. The question was about why my 2004 WRX doesn't have a spoiler. I didn't want to spend the $700 or so for the factory package (I think spoiler, short-throw shifter, an turbo gauge) and didn't want dealer installed. But I explained that almost all cars come with packages in the last few decades, but as late as maybe the 80s, a lot of cars would be ordered where almost everything could be done at the factory if ordered that way.

Someone posted a video on the Black Ghost, which was a special ordered Dodge Charger that seemed to win a lot of street races. I enjoyed it, especially learning about how everything was specified by the buyer.

Anyone know for sure when fullfactory customization ceased to be a thing?

Porsche lets you pick all your options ala carte on their sport cars(718 & 911) I am not sure on their other vehicles. I recently ordered a 718 and picked only options I wanted. They go so far as letting you choose seatbelt colors, door handles and rear spoiler in black not Body color and contrast stitching on leather. You can also get Paint to Sample but that is very expensive. While not exactly a volume manufacturer they still offer this. It is said that no to 911's are exactly the same.