What Was The Process for How Cars Were Configured?

[#41]

I have often wondered when pondering fender tags, how/who came up with all the car configurations and options? On a customer-ordered car it is obvious, but for other cars was it Chrysler, the dealers or both? I suspect it was mostly Chrysler. Is there any info on the subject of how car production and option selection was determined? Was it an accountant? The marketing department? Executive whim? A spiritual guru? A monkey? A dart board?

Today I am sure it has a lot to do with marketing feedback and some kind of complicated analysis, but how about in the 60's and 70's?

 

[68BabyBlue]

Addressing the muscle B bodies specifically, the local dealership in State College used to order a significant number of cars built to the dealer's specifications, as well as sales bank cars (built by Chrysler without a customer or dealer order.) Most unique car to come out of the sales bank was a '69 Hemi Road Runner, built at the end of the model year. Perhaps Chrysler was trying to use up the solid lifter engines still in stock, before changing over to hydraulic lifter versions in the '70 model year. Most unique ordered car was a Moulin Rouge AAR 'Cuda which sat front and center in the showroom in 1970. Interesting to see a survivor version of the same model break 300,000K at Mecum this year.

 

[Runcharger]

My local dealer ordered their cars. I suspect however that sometimes they were offered a better deal on sales bank cars with popular options.
We lived in a smaller city with longer winters so all their cars were ordered with block heaters, rear window defoggers and sometimes a suregrip. Sometimes people would go to Vancouver, buy a car and save a few hundred dollars. Then after awhile they would discover they would have to add block heaters and such. My brother was a mechanic and it was common for cars bought somewhere else at a slight saving to show up at their dealership with the buyer expecting them to line up windows and doors properly along with other work not caught on the selling dealerships PDI.
I'm sure things are quite a bit diferent these days with manufacturers churning out every grey car they can with all the same option packages.
Ha, ha. I just remembered an instance when I was talking to a salesman while looking at a 1971 Demon 340. The salesman told me they had ordered the car before seeing the new models and didn't bother to order the hood scoops because they were standard on the 70 Swinger 340's. He said now they were going to be stuck with this car because it didn't have the scoops. He was an older salesman but he was savvy and knew what sold cars back then.

 

[pnora]

As a dealer I can tell you this.
1-Corporate decided the options by their research. We often scratched our heads.
2-Dealers ordered by what was available, customer orders, thinking on the lines of what will sell, and lets try something different.
3-Sales bank cars were decided by Corporate. These were the fill in the gap cars for a full production run.

 

[Fran Blacker]

The original owner of my car said dealer wanted him to order a black interior. He said dealer kept pushing black but he told them he wanted gold/tan period. P4T
Some say gold others say tan, to me it's looks gold.

 

[#41]

Interesting stuff!

 

[YY1]

The original owner of my car said dealer wanted him to order a black interior. He said dealer kept pushing black but he told them he wanted gold/tan period. P4T
Some say gold others say tan, to me it's looks gold.

You got a factory red car with a factory gold interior?

Interesting.

 

[68BabyBlue]

The original owner of my car said dealer wanted him to order a black interior. He said dealer kept pushing black but he told them he wanted gold/tan period. P4T
Some say gold others say tan, to me it's looks gold.

I'm guessing they were concerned about selling it if the buyer backed out when it was delivered. My GTX has the same combination as your car, but ordered by the dealer for his personal use. Forty years later, I discussed color selection with his son, when I bought a new Chrysler 300. I wanted the same color combination his father had chosen back in the day, though now parchment was the closest interior color available. None in stock in PA, Rob special ordered the car for me. When it arrived, he told me it was drawing a crowd all day long until I drove it off the lot.

He said I had learned well from his dad in how to set up a great looking vehicle. But he added that selling them in volume was a whole different story. He put silver or white cars on his lot. And back in the day, his father had filled the lot with green and blue 383 Road Runners, not red GTXs with tan interiors.

 

[Fran Blacker]

You got a factory red car with a factory gold interior?

Interesting.

I have the sales agreement, he put $1788 down. I would post it but it would impossible to read.