Blue Scream of Jeff: You can't always get what you want in a car

Saturday, January 28, 2017

You can't always get what you want in a car

Even Mick Jagger isn't thrilled that you can't get a manual transmission, moon roof and fancy touch-screen entertainment system in the same model of the new Honda Civic hatchback.

Back in the day, Mick and the boys once crooned that “You Can't Always Get What You Want.”

Almost 50 years later, you’d figure that complaint would be obsolete. After all, with today’s technology, you can find just about anything on the web, or at least find someone who can make it for you.

Except, it seems, for cars.

Despite all the changes that computerized ordering, inventory and manufacturing have brought us, we are still pretty much stuck buying a car the way our parents and grandparents did.

Oh, sure, you can shop for a car online; get all its specs and details; compare and contrast different models without schlepping to a dozen dealerships; and even place your order with a dealership all from the comfort of your armchair.

But just try to get something other than what’s in a dealer’s inventory, and you can’t. They might as well have Ray Charles at the door telling you to: “Hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more.”

I’m sure this is true of other industries too. It’s just that I was rudely confronted with this fact last month, when my 10-year-old car developed a problem that wasn’t worth repairing and I unexpectedly found myself needing to go car shopping.

Now I’d been thinking about getting a new car for a while, and even had my eye on one: the new Honda Civic hatchback. My old car was a Civic coupe, but it wasn’t a hatchback, something all my previous vehicles had been. I prefer hatchbacks because of their cargo room, so my choice of replacement vehicles wasn’t hard.

I’d figured I just swap my old Civic EX coupe, for the all-new Civic EX hatchback.

Easy right?

You’d think so.

But I’m not like most people. (Just ask the long suffering Mrs. BlueScreamOfJeff!)

Nope. I want things most “normal” people don’t. And one of those things I want, is a car with a manual transmission. I think it makes driving even a boring economical car like a Civic feel more sporty and fun. (Yeah, I know, I told you I was weird…)

All my other cars have been sticks ever since my Uncle Jack had me learn to drive one, and I had absolutely no intention of changing this now.

That was until I got to the Honda dealership.

Seems I couldn’t get that car with a stick shift in the same trim level as my old car.

At first I was a bit perplexed by this because the new Civic hatchback is being touted as a European sport hatchback and those types of car all come standard with a manual transmission.

Ok, I thought. No problem. I’ll just get the lower trim level that does come with stick and add the missing features – a moon roof and touchscreen entertainment system – as options. Sure it might be a bit more expensive, but, hey, I could afford it and it would give me the car I wanted.

Nope.

Those features are only available on the higher trim levels.

But I’m even willing to pay more and wait a while to get it!

Nope. Sorry. Honda doesn’t do custom orders.

Why? Why is this not possible? That’s what I want to know!

What I was asking for didn’t require Honda to re-tool its production line. The features I wanted were all available for the Civic, they just had to be put in one car. Computerized ordering and manufacturing systems should make this request easy to accomplish with minimal disruption. So why couldn’t they accommodate this request?

I understand that big car makers like Honda, Toyota, GM and Ford can’t customize every car to each customer’s liking and still turn a profit. But if someone is willing to pay a small premium for it, and it just requires a bit of mixing and matching of parts and features they already have, then why not do it?

The technology to do this exists. All that appears to be lacking is the will to stop doing things a certain way because they’ve always been done that way in the past. Auto manufacturers need to embrace the future if they want to survive.

Like me, Millennials are accustomed to world where they can pick and choose the exact options they want. And if they don’t get them one place, they’re sure to either find another that will, or create a company that will give them exactly what they want.

So if today’s auto makers don’t want to go the way of big bookstores like Borders and Barnes and Noble, they’re going to need to learn to adapt — and quickly. Or else — to paraphrase the Rolling Stones — we all might just find, someone else to give us what we need.