Ordering a new truck is frustating

I agree. It's almost like it's some kind of secret.
You'd think they would make building and ordering as easy as spending your money.I recently built a RAM and a Ford. They both hide options I want and in the case of the Ford, I never could find one specific thing I know it has available. It would also help if they listed standard packages side by side so you can compare easier. If this info is avail, I couldn't find it on their respective sites.

They are just trying to force you to buy things that you don't want in order to get what you do want.

agesilaus wrote:
They are just trying to force you to buy things that you don't want in order to get what you do want.

Exactly. When I bought my Tundra in 2010 I wanted a relatively base model half ton with the bigger engine. GM wouldn't let me buy the 6.2 V8 in a base truck. I had to get a pretty high optioned truck which was heavier (less payload) and more expensive. That was annoying.

I get that they want to sell certain packages, which are bigger money makers for them. I'd imagine that most people buy off the lot and only a small percentage actually order to spec. Seems they could offer options "a la carte" to the few that actually order them. They might make a little less money, but they might sell a few more trucks...

They sell as many trucks as they can make.Why would they make ordering one easy?

agesilaus wrote:
They are just trying to force you to buy things that you don't want in order to get what you do want.

I had the opposite problem. I wanted a fully loaded F150 with Max Payload package. Can't get it. I did get some options that I didn't want because they came with a package and I saved $500 by getting everything instead of just what I wanted. You can expect to see more bundling though, they are trying to streamline manufacturing by reducing the number of variations available. If you look at Kia's for example, they offer two or three bundles on each car and that is it except for paint choices. The American car makers are going that direction from what I have heard.

Groover wrote:
If you look at Kia's for example, they offer two or three bundles on each car and that is it except for paint choices. The American car makers are going that direction from what I have heard.

Yup. Toyota and Honda have been doing this for years.

I dunno, seemed easy to me. Went to the fleet guy, we went through the order screen and I selected all the options I wanted. 5 weeks later the truck was here. Was able to get the ultimate lariat package with all the options, and wasn't forced to get the moonroof (which I didn't want).

I will say the HD trucks (Fords at least) seem to be the most configurable out there.

Almost every truck I look at on a lot seems to be heavily optioned. I could care less about a lot of things. Last 2 trucks I bought, although XLT's and not Lariat's, were on dealer's lots w/ pretty much what I would have ordered in the 1st place. Am happy w/ them. If I ever to get another truck and have to order it, I will beat up the salesperson over what I want and stick to my guns for you can get what you want, but may take some doing.

ACZL wrote:
Almost every truck I look at on a lot seems to be heavily optioned.

The dealer build the trucks that they get to have on the lot, same as you and I ordering one. They order the trucks with the options, as that's where the markup is. "We have this truck that has everything you want, it also have the navigation system, but that will only at 15 dollars a month to your payment."

For what it is worth, my ordering experience was fairly painless. Go on company website, and configure the truck they way I wanted it, and save the build summary. Go to every dealer website within a 50 mile radius, fill out the 'contact' form, and ask for an email address for their internet sales department. Three days later, send a mass email with the build sheet to all the dealers who replied, asking them to give me their best offer, for the truck in the build sheet, either in inventory, transfer, or order, with a hard deadline of when I planned to place the order. 1 day later I had an offer of 1500 off invoice before rebates, 2 days after that, they still had the best offer, so I went in, and signed the paperwork to start the order.

My first one was such a steal I just bought it... It was a 13 quad cab Ram Tradesman 5.7 with 3500 miles on it. The deal in the paper was too good to be true... But I found out, that the wife of the guy who bought it didn't like climbing up into it... It was about 4K less than identical new ones on the lot.

I asked the guy about the deal and he said I have 35 of these new. This one is more trouble than its worth. I was like the second person to look at it and bought it. I then started realizing the things I wanted like a crew cab, LSD, better radio etc.

Three years later late in the year they called wondering and needing to make end of month numbers and had an optioned package (Ram Outdoorsman) that is exactly what I would have ordered except for color, brake controller and bed liner. So, I couldn't change color, but they Rhino lined it, put in the brake controller and put my aftermarket bumper/winch on as my original truck and the new one were the same color (white) they could switch bumpers easy. I love it three years into the "new" one. I got it for 34K and change on a 47K truck. Sometimes you get lucky. Then I got dinked in the back bumper while parked and was able to wangle a Ranch hand back bumper and 75 bucks back as part of the fix. MT is a "fault" state and it wasn't my fault so I got paid 75 bucks to get the bumper I wanted...and it will take more of a hit than the OEM bumper for sure. Love my truck.