Gimme Options: Consumers Get Small Cars With Expensive Extras

BMW’s Mini Cooper starts at just over $18,000, and the vehicle is highly popular, in part due to high gas prices. Yet customers pay an average of 40% more than that base sticker price to get the car loaded with options. It doesn’t take a Mathlete to tell you it’s going to be awhile before the fuel savings negate the extra $7,000 they’re spending.

If you really go heavy on the extras, a Mini Cooper can hit $40,000.

This is a small bit of good news for automakers in otherwise dismal times. The reason car companies stuck with big gas-guzzlers for so long is because the profit margin on these behemoths is far greater than it is on small cars — as much as $10,000 for large trucks and SUVs.

On cars with smaller profit margins, added options are one of the few ways dealers can turn larger profits. After all, $400 for a navigation system, $600 for a sunroof, $500 for satellite radio — those options really start to add up.

It seems as if car buyers have grown accustomed to the perks of a big car and want to take those benefits with them when they downgrade to smaller vehicles.

Car Buyers Downsize, but Spend Big on Options (The New York Times)