WHITBY FREE PRESS, DURHAM MOVES, AUGUST 31, 1988, PAGE Ai A Ride In A Nissan Shiro page A3 AUTO NEWS WISY.F4EPRES Packaging the product By Alex Law Many years ago, Henry Ford said of one of the cars his company made: "You can have it any color you want, as long as it's black." Ford's attitude was explained by the fact that he had invented the production line in an attempt to mass produce reasonably priced cars. if his workers had to worry about painting one car black and the next one white and the next one white and the next one black and the next one whatever it would slow them down and add to the cost. After World War II, people decided they wanted to have cars the way they wanted them, and pay extra for it. Not so long ago, says Max Wickens, a longtime auto journalist and now Nissan Canada's manager of corporate affairs, "There were years when they made millions of Chevies and no two were alike. They were like sundaes the guy at the corner would make specially for you." Early importers to Canada operated somewhat differently, says Wickens. "Very often you didn't know what you were getting until they came off the boat," he says. "Then you sold what you got." Then things changed again when the Japanese automakers entered the North American market in a serious way. Suddenly the sundaes weren't made at the corner but halfway around the world. For the small Canadian market, Wickens says, the Japanese importers would send cars more fully equipped than the domestic base models, and with options they knew would be popular in certain combinations. At the time the Japanese currency was worth a lot less versus our dollar than it is now, so the imports were better equipped and cheaper than domestic strippers. This made them understandably attractive to buyers. Ford, Chrysler, GM and AMC retaliated by upping the number of features in their base cars. But by then the Japanese cars were better built, se their importers started to earn more market share. The fuel crisis and a general economic slump added to the domestics' woes, and by the early '60s the North American auto manufacturers were in real trouble. They saw that one way to cut costs was to simplify the manufacturing process, which meant making it easier for the people bolting the vehicles together, which meant fewer buyer choices. Not fewer options, understand, since options are a good source of revenue. To make the process simpler without destroying the profit centres, the domestics turned to option packages, which are groupings of features the companies say reflect general consumer demand. 'We looked at what people were buying," says Chuck Weir, Ford of Canada's product planning analyst. So, in a sense, option packages as they now exist are the result of the democratic process. Weir claims the packages not only make it easier for Ford to build the cars (which lowers the cost while increasing the quality), but sometimes also provide the buyer with a better deal. The thinking, if it doesn't strike you right off, is that the lower costs are passed on to you, the buyer. That may be, but the packages must sometimes bring on severe sticker shock. For example, I recently drove a very nice Ford Aerostar Wagon with the Eddie Bauer package. If you want that car you buy an Aerostar and then ask for option code 640B (the Eddie Bauer series). That choice will cost you $8,210, which, to be fair, includes a host of things. Direct cost comparisons are impossible between options sold in packages and options sold individually because options generally aren't sold individually, except to fleets and in the higher priced vehicles and pickups. Weir also makes the connection to the old days at Ford when there were "millions of varieties, and sometimes we'd SEE PAGE A4 Sweet Dreams on display BOB BOMIIOF of Oshawa, wipes the fairgrounds this past weekend. The water from the windshield of his 1962 show was held by the Street Dreanis Ford Sunliner. The car was just one Car Club of Durham. of many cars on display at the Orono Free Press photo Landau: What more do you need? By Alex Law In a wildly entertaining film called 'You Are What You Were When,' an American lecturer explains that if you were born before World War II you learned at an early age to be careful with your money. And that attitude, the lecturer says, tempers they way you are as an adult. So if you're 55 or older and you're looking for a fully-equipped luxury car, you are obviously going to be attracted to the Chrysler New Yorker Landau. Obviously because it has traditional looks, a comparatively low price, and appointments out its tailpipe. It's comfortable, quiet, air-conditioned and easy to drive. The fact that it doesn't have all the latest mechanical geegaws means little, if anything, to you. The car goes where you point it, doesn't it? And it stops when you put on the brakes. What more do, you need? Nothing, that's what. If you're considering a New Yorker Landau, don't let the fashionably disparaging attitudes of the media dissuade you. This is a perfectly suitable car. It is not, as you may have gathered, my type of car. That's because I am a post-war baby raised in the '60s, though I feel like the oldest person on the planet some days. I am used to buying things I want when I want them. On balance, I think my attitude is the better one to have when times are likely to be good. The other attitude is preferable when times are likely to be bad. Depression babies will tell you that, sooner or later, times are always likely to be bad. Now that they're at a stage in life where they've got a cushion under themn and less need to worry about a future, they can kick back some. Why not spend a pile on a luxury car to drive to Florida every fall? But not too big a pile. Those early influences can be tenacious. There's Olds and Buick to consider, but not Lincoln or Cadillac because they're just too much. The Olds 98 is kinda' nice but it can run you more than $30,000. Down the street at the Chrysler dealer they've got that New Yorker Landau, and the paper says it comes well loaded for a lot less. So, the New Yorker Landau starts at $25,300 and it cornes with a lot of features. There's the 3-litre EFI V6 with a three-speed automatic transaxle and a fuel-conserving lockup torque convertor, power brakes, an SEE PAGE A4 CONSID HE BENEFITS OF LEASING FREES UP CASH' MORE CARS FOR LE$$ ON E C STOP SHOPPING 101 BROCK ST. S., WHITBY nLEA&SEOfl il i a n ssmt"¾tr--%AI n CLWA %AI A 4UU KIN(j Zj 1 . VV .9 U%->rlMVVM 57e- 2244S