When sales of manual transmissions sagged, and when more and more people opted for power windows and A/C, it made sense for the manufacturers to cease offering the older versions, simply because they don’t want to have to vary the production line for a very small segment of their market. IMHO, if they did offer cars w/o A/C and power windows, they just might charge more for those non-power options, simply because these variations complicate the assembly process for the mfr.
I wonder what a potential car buyer would see if they typed “window” into the search link at the top right of this page?
I like manual transmissions for the fun factor but nowadays they are rare and in pricey cars. I have kids that share my cars and they refer to the stick shift as a “problem that got solved”, so I am stuck with automatics.
I hate sunroofs and actually am in a market for a new car and somehow Toyota puts the sunroof package on all their new cars. Being bald, I am sure I will never use it and only have to deal with cracked or leaking sunroofs. Have offered them to pay for the sunroof and not have a car with deflective roof but Toyota won’t budge. They claim there cars are luxury items and should be loaded.
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Maybe the claim that “nobody wants a manual transmission” is a self-fulfilling prophesy?
As far a sunroofs, my VW Rabbit had one, and it never caused any problems in over a dozen years. However, just opening the window seemed to work pretty good at filling the car with fresh air, so I doubt I’d pay extra for a sunroof. But if it came as part of the package, that wouldn’t be a deal-breaker.
That market study was conducted in the 1980’s, 1990’s and continued on. Dealers ordered a few stripped models for inventory but also to use as “advertisers”: “Stock # TC00101 for $14,999”. Sometimes these vehicles remained on the lot until the end-of-model-year sale because they were difficult to sell.
When buyers pay $20,000 for a new car, they are willing to pay a little more for power windows, locks and remote keyless entry. Most people plan to enjoy their new car for several years.
Manufactures know what sells, dealers know what sells, you were not involved with the auto sale industry.
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It’s very common here in Silicon Valley to hear the phrase "our technical staff know if their salary is competitive " from the the folks who advocate for the employers who are asking Congress to allow more worker-visas.
There have been several threads discussing the idea that new cars have too many features, the opinions haven’t changed during the last 11 years.
What do you think of the new Corolla? I’m unimpressed - General Discussion - Car Talk Community
I’m happy to consider the actual unbiased evidence. But to do that requires selling both options.
Say this were done, and 10% of buyers chose a car w/ manual trans & manual crank windows for a $10,000 less sticker price. Would you say this means “nobody wants those manual options”? What if it were 20%? What % would prove to you that car buyers would like to have the manual options available?
As professor @Triedaq related, many items have been included as standard features now than in the past. Things like back up lights and interior lighting switches. Now we find other items like power windows and even ac as being standard.
Manufacturers respond to what consumers want and dealers order what they can sell. Some will not like this system but it has worked well. I may prefer the old rubber floor covering instead of carpet but it’ll be tough trying to find a car on the lot with that option. I had to buy a new phone and have had to adjust other preferences that changed with the market. I’m ok with all of that as long as the government keeps their noses out of the choices available.
Yup!
Back in the '90s, I knew a guy who managed to buy the only Civic in the area that had no options whatsoever. The dealer had used that car for most of the sales year, in order to entice buyers with its low price, before those buyers opted for something with a more typical level of creature comforts.
At the end of the model year, my friend managed to buy the totally-strippo Civic at a fairly good price, and he drove it for the next 10 years or so–with his audio entertainment provided by a boom box that he would put in the car temporarily.
Yup! That guy wouldn’t even pay to have an aftermarket radio installed.
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Heh heh. I remember in my 59 vw, after installing carpet, I added a rear seat speaker, just to impress the girls.
Maybe he didn’t want a radio installed b/c it might entice a thief to break the window to steal it? My area seemed to have a rash of broken windows last weekend. I saw evidence of at least a dozen side windows broken. All of those owners had to figure out a way to make a temporary repair to keep the rainout, then take time out of their schedule to contact their insurance agents, then to arrange for an immediate window replacement. They had no choice to defer this work, b/c it’s raining. The sans-radio Honda owner could have just sat back and enjoyed the Super Bowl. Which is the better option?
I see rental scooters left around town. They have no radios or windows and no car payments either to take it to the extreme. But we should not confuse anarchy with car features. From what I have read anyway, the problem is not car radios compelling cars to be broken into.
I guess I struck a nerve there, but you are the one that asked this…
As well as you have said many times that you walk around picking up oil filters that are put out for trash and always complaining about cost of repairs…
And no, wanting to learn how to repair something or just enjoying a DIY for fun or to save money is not being cheap, but saying a feature like power windows is not worth it because it might cost you a couple hundred $$$ every 100-200K miles is being cheap, but not wanting power windows because you don’t like them and like the mechanical feel of a hand crank is a personal preference…
This is what I call being cheap and google agrees, I typed in “someone being cheap meaning” and it showed these at the top of the list:
If you describe someone as cheap, you are criticizing them for being unwilling to spend money .
What does it mean when someone says they’re cheap?
unwilling to spend money:
And you have said basically you are unwilling to spend money for power windows and complain about the cost of them as well as other features… Again not wanting something because you don’t like it is different then not wanting something because it might cost you a few $$$ over 10-20-30+ years…
But don’t feel bad, I am pretty cheap on lots of things… I am fighting with helping my son find a transmission sensor code that you have to remove the transmission to replace, already replaced it and now I am thinking it is a wiring issue (inside the transmission), I don’t have a scanner that reads live data on transmissions and I am to cheap to buy one and to cheap to tow it to a shop… So no offence intended and I apologize for offending you…
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When I took this picture in 2017, this 1992 Accord had only 40,000 miles. The owner told me that when he bought this car he couldn’t order it the way he wanted it from the dealer. He had to go through some corporate fleet order and order a one-off because Honda wouldn’t make this car for retail sales. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but…
The unpainted bumpers are factory. It’s a manual trans 4 cyl, manual windows, locks, and he told me if he could have bought it with manual brakes he would have. It has rear defrost because apparently Honda didn’t make a rear glass without defrost. If you look closely you can see the rubber plug in the left rear where the antenna would be if the car had a radio. This is absolutely the cheapest stripped-down Accord you could buy. You couldn’t buy a car like this today because it won’t meet safety regulations.
Maybe the guy who bought this car is a long-lost cousin of yours? 
More like $1,000.
Id say 40%
You believe the cost of new cars should be subsidized to test public buying preference?
Power windows have been an affordable feature for compact cars for 30 years. I don’t recall the prices but for power windows, power locks and RKE should be $600 to $800.
Automatic transmission option: $1500 to $2000.
Today’s prices, Volkswagen Jetta automatic transmission is $800 more than manual.
Nissan Versa, $1670.
No, it was because he was just plain… cheap.
He could have driven that car for more than 10 years or so, but he (and his wife) decided that they could no longer tolerate a car w/o A/C, so they “splurged” on a Camry with the normal level of creature comforts.
So far, I’ve owned 6 cars with power windows, and none of them ever required repair of the window mechanism. That includes up to 12 years/128k miles of use.
This issue reminds me of a guy I know (the one who can’t parallel park his tiny car properly) who refuses to buy a new gas range “because they all have electronic ignition nowadays and they might need to be repaired some day”.
The real reason is that he is just too cheap to buy anything new unless there is absolutely no alternative. His wife wanted the new range because the top of the old range was so encrusted with old food residue that it could no longer be cleaned, and it looked awful.
His solution was to paint the top of the range with high-temperature paint designed for outdoor grills. He painted right over the encrusted food residue, and the result looks absolutely awful. Because of so many cheaping-out issues like this, he and his wife are now separated.
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