Manufacturers have enormous upcharges for every trivial amenity they sell as "luxurious".
When I was a kid my grandpa had an early 70's Ford pickup. I don't remember what model it was, but he was so proud of the fact that it came with literally no options from the factory. He had a transistor radio which slid around on the dashboard and was powered by plugging it into the (standard equipment, obviously) cigarette lighter. The wiper had two modes: on and off. It did have heat but no AC, manual windows, a 4 speed manual transmission (1st gear was a granny gear which I never saw him use. It came with manual locking front hubs to put it into 4WD. It had a single solid vinyl bench seat. He had to cut scraps of carpet as it came with no floor mats. It was a badass truck. He had to order it special from the dealer because the dealership never requested bare bones vehicles from the manufacturer. They got to make money on options packages, so even back then it was a tactic.
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u/okeleydokelyneighbor 6h ago
Since covid, they went all in on luxury models and killed most smaller ones to maximize profits.