I am a little confused. When I do a build on Jaguar's international website, I get a ton load of more options, but on the USA website there are a more limited set of options. For example, on the International site I can configure my car to have: Seat Memory Pack 2 (which includes Auto-Dimming door mirrors with Power Fold and Memory), or Limited Slip Differential plus Torque Vectoring, but these options don't exist on the USA website. Does anyone know why?

 

This also confused me for a short while as what comes standard and what is an option varied quite a lot between the UK and US market.

I'd recommend trying to get hold of a new catalogue/brochure at your local dealer. Might be easier to understand exactly what is standard and what is not.

There have been mistakes made on the configurator before with options missing or glitching by reverting back.

 

Welcome to the land of the limited options. Marketing experts have determined that American consumers are too stupid to know what's best for them individually, so the options only come in predetermined packages. That's what it feels like, anyway.
What is probably more correct is that the American consumer is so preoccupied with immediate gratification that hardly anyone has the self discipline to wait for a factory order, and hardly any vehicles are sold until they appear on the dealer's lot. Those cars need to be optioned to appeal to the broadest audience. It's also cheaper to produce a whole series of cars outfitted with the same set of options.

 

The flip side to that is Porsche. Everything is an option and I felt nickel-dimed by the time I had speced my car. Well nickel-dime does not really cover it as the option pricing is outrageous. I like packages, frankly.


Larry

 

+1

Assuming theres a financial benefit to "packages", I too prefer them. Ordering a Porsche or a Bentley, Its absolutely ridiculous to have to pay say $300 for lug nut locks.

Often though with packages, when building a car online, I'll select an option that clashes with another package and I have to make a choice between the two which can be frustrating. This would be the only advantage to the tedious task of wading through a sea of options. If you want to really see this in action, build yourself a pick up truck like a Tacoma. You have o make decisions like "do I want floor mats", "do I need a cigarette lighter".

I'd take it one step further and say that in a perfect world, I'd prefer the Lexus build model and assume the car comes fully loaded where your decisions are boiled down to exterior/interior color and wheel style choice.

 

@lsbrodsky Good point, yea Porsche makes you pay for so many things that comes standard on most cars, but I figured the reasoning behind it was to make anything that adds weight optional. While it feels like they are nickel-dime'ing you it is probably a good thing if you plan to seriously track your car, and when you equip a equally model Porsche Cayman against the F-type, the Porsche still comes out a bit cheaper.

@Unhingd, Yea it was confusing, but I did take a stop at the dealer today and realized most of the options I wanted to add to my V6S are already included, some as part of the base configuration and others get slid in with other random optional add-ons. Super confusing as the website doesn't clearly tell you exactly all the things you get, for example I could not find anywhere on the USA website that made any mention of the folder mirrors.

 

My gripe with packages is that to get one thing I want I need to get a number of things I don't want.

The last car I spec'd (Volvo C30) was like that. Want the upgraded stereo? You'll have to get the sunroof and electrically adjustable seats with three memory settings. The more annoying part was that if I took overseas delivery I could have ordered options a la carte, including options and colors not available in the US.

When I ordered the Volvo I couldn't afford the time for a trip, but if Jaguar had an overseas delivery program I'd have seriously considered it.

 

For US market many of these options are standard, because market can handle increased price. Everywhere else F-type is too expensive, so they are finding ways to offer stripper cars for cheaper.

When I was taking factory tour I have seen one of these no-options cars coming off the line, they are probably the best deal out there and this is exactly why you can't have it in US.

 

Not the case for F-type, I know firsthand since I talked at length with production engineer. They have options sheet for EVERY car, in production it makes no difference to them if all, some or no options are checked - you still have custom made wiring harness and you still have it assembled.

They do make less profit on no-options car. That is the only reason they won't offer it in US.

 

American tend to purchase highly optioned cars, so many European options are already standard on cars sent here. We are extremely lucky in this country. We pay much less for British built cars here in the states than customers in England where the cars are actually built.

Options can be ridiculous, Carbon Fiber shift paddles on an Aston Martin are a $3200 option.

 

I wonder if there is a way to have the dealer customize the option sheet for you, irrespective of what the website allows. Have you ever heard of this being possible? I have two packages that are clashing right now.

 

I ordered mine. I use the USA Online configuration tool, my dealer said its not 100% accurate and is not the absolute word on what you can order. Every option has a code: if you know what you want your dealer can look it up for you and you can have it as long as the car still complies with local market regulations.
If you custom order check out the international sites to see what's possible.

 

This is music to my ears

 

I imagine it's a lot more money, but I believe you can order cars through Jaguar SVO (if that's the right name), and I would think you could get whatever you want. Certainly, custom paint colors.

 

SVO is for really custom stuff.
I have a Jaguar X-type Sportwagon and they sell an XF wagon in the UK home market. I told my dealer I'd love a USA legal XF Wagon - they said it would be an SVO job and the cost would be ridiculous as they would have to make 1-off USA spec rear lighting assemblies for it. "If you have to have.a price for it you probably can't afford one."

 

I know when I was deciding between the Cayman and the F-Type, I played with the Porsche configurator and found you add more $'s in options than the base price of the car.

I did a similar exercise on the Macan when we ordered the F-Pace. When I put on the ceramic brakes, it went past $150k - enough for 2 First Editions.

 

Porsche options can be very insane cost wise, and very seuctive. It's hard to resist adding things we really don't need. Ordering a car without all these needless options is the way to go, but hard to do.

 

Mods please delete. I did not realize how old this thread was.