differences!!

[bigsky2]

I don't understand this logic though.

If the Yaris is considered a low-end vehicle in the NA market, how does it hurt the consumer and Toyota if more accessories and options were merely offered?

It's not as if these options would become mandatory for the buyer, as they are called accessories and additional options for a reason. I also do not understand how this would hurt Toyota as the Yaris is assembled in Japan, and now Taiwan, where accessories are abundant at the factory assembly level. Granted, the extra accessories may add to the cost of the Yaris because of different specifications, it is still worth noting that this would add to the cost of the Yaris if the consumer was willing to pay for it in the first place.

A car does not magically become more expensive if an auto maker offers more accessories; it gives the consumer more purchasing power by allowing them to choose a barebone setup or a fully loaded model with all available features.

I find it extremely frustrating to be a NA auto consumer because we are always handed the short end of the stick, and there is virtually no freedom in customizing the vehicle to one's taste.

[uncleyaris]

Originally Posted by bigsky2

I don't understand this logic though.

If the Yaris is considered a low-end vehicle in the NA market, how does it hurt the consumer and Toyota if more accessories and options were merely offered?

It's not as if these options would become mandatory for the buyer, as they are called accessories and additional options for a reason. I also do not understand how this would hurt Toyota as the Yaris is assembled in Japan, and now Taiwan, where accessories are abundant at the factory assembly level. Granted, the extra accessories may add to the cost of the Yaris because of different specifications, it is still worth noting that this would add to the cost of the Yaris if the consumer was willing to pay for it in the first place.

A car does not magically become more expensive if an auto maker offers more accessories; it gives the consumer more purchasing power by allowing them to choose a barebone setup or a fully loaded model with all available features.

I find it extremely frustrating to be a NA auto consumer because we are always handed the short end of the stick, and there is virtually no freedom in customizing the vehicle to one's taste.

Well stated. It might actually drive entry level interest knowing the mods/accessories available. Example, look at the interest for the tail lights from japan. Something so simple, yet 400 plus Canadian. Pis..es me off.

UY

[SmellyTofu]

Originally Posted by bigsky2

A car does not magically become more expensive if an auto maker offers more accessories; it gives the consumer more purchasing power by allowing them to choose a barebone setup or a fully loaded model with all available features.

It does when they sell < 10/month.

Warehouse cost? Compliance cost? Tariff cost? Development cost? Shipping cost? Marketing/Promotion cost? Training cost? .. and that's just the start. It's not as simple as catalogue shopping.

[bigsky2]

Originally Posted by SmellyTofu

It does when they sell < 10/month.

Warehouse cost? Compliance cost? Tariff cost? Development cost? Shipping cost? Marketing/Promotion cost? Training cost? .. and that's just the start. It's not as simple as catalogue shopping.

Warehouse cost?
- Non existant if you consider that these vehicles are made to order. Would Toyota consider making dozens of fully loaded Yaris models just to store them?

Compliance cost?
- Like I stated, this would obviously drive up the cost of the vehicle because the accessories are made to conform to various specifications for each specific geographical market. You have a lot of accessories that can be used across the board slight modification.

Tariff cost?
- Again, this is another cost that would be added to the final cost of the vehicle. It's inevitable that if you are going to add more options to a vehicle, its price will increase. By offering such options, does this adversely affect an exact same vehicle with less features? Each vehicle has a base cost ex factory, anything beyond that will be accounted for by the manufacturer, marked up, and appropriately passed down to the consumer. This does not the base price of other vehicles.

Promotion?
- It does not cost very much to promote accessories and features; in fact, they are already promoted to begin with. It certainly does not significantly increase promotion and marketing costs because these functions are already planned for. When a new vehicle is launched, there is already a marketing and promotion function that introduces the customer to more value added features. It's not as if Toyota never had to mention accessories before and now must spend enormous amounts of resources to promote them.

Training?
- This would make things certainly easier for Toyota or any auto manufacturer if they developed a unified training schedule for a specific vehicle model and deployed this schedule to sales people and employees in each geographical region. You develop one system, revise it to each segment's specifications, aand push it across each given segment to educate the sales people.

No, it's not as simple as catalogue shopping and I never implied that.

What I am trying to get at is that merely offering these enhancements will not hurt anyone.

The NA market needs to get over the stigma that accessories, features, options, etc., should only be limited to high end vehicles. Consumers need to get over the fear that because a vehicle has limitless options, it MUST be an expensive car in the end.