I can recall the day when you could order just power windows or just power door locks or both. There were four interior colors and three trim levels. The trim panels had different cutouts depending on the power window / lock combination. Also the wiring harnesses were unique depending on the power accessories ordered. Not only was it crazy stocking all the parts, but the rate of installation error was much higher.
So, in my experience, option bundling was done for the right reasons. I can see where it might be abused, but it's gotta be rare, given the competition.
That is interesting and I hadn't thought of it that way. That said, in this specific case, it is annoying to me.
We have a choice of getting the Town and Country Touring-L or the Town and Country Limited. Most things that are on the Limited can be obtained as an options on the Touring-L. A few things can't. Some of those I don't care about (the suede inserts on the Limited). There are two that I care about, one a little bit and the other a lot.
If you want the high intensity discharge headlamps you must buy the Limited. This is a big deal to me. I would much prefer to have them than not have them. It may end up being enough to persuade me to order the Limited.
The other is that you can get a slightly better audio system with more speakers. This is a nice to have. I might pay for it in the Limited if it wasn't much of an extra charge. But it isn't available in the Limited.
So, configuring the Limited and the Touring-L identically (except for the things that are Limited only), the Limited is $2200 more than the Touring-L. So I'm paying $2200 for HID headlamps and the better audio/speakers.
I might do that.
But....the Limited has Standard the DVD player and video screens and Sirius backseat TV (which has 3 channels -- Disney, Nickelodeon and Cartoon).
On the Touring-L that is a $2525 option ($2000 for the player/video and $525 for the backseat TV for some period of time).
We had a DVD player and screens on our old minivan and when the kids were young and we did long driving vacations it was wonderful (especially with the wireless headphones). But, now, they are older. They both have iPhones to entertain them and we hardly ever buy DVDs any more. So that whole thing is a waste.
So you might look at that the true cost of the HID headlamps and the audio is $2200 + the $2525 for the options we don't want which ends up being a $4725 upcharge.
Still haven't decided on that one. I'm sure we would get some limited use out of the DVD player but I would never buy it if I got the Touring-L. I just resent it that I can't get the HID headlamps without it.