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Build-to-Order Cars?
MadMonk writes "Baseline has an article about a new car company that wants to be 'the Dell of the auto industry.' Build-To-Order, Inc. could turn the auto industry on its ear. At worst, BTO will be an interesting technology petri dish. I want a customized car to match my customized computer."
Insert random quotation about the hood being helding shut.
You are not the customer.
isn't calling a dell computer a "custom" computer a bit of a stretch? they're interchangable parts, its not like they are custom built.
it's henry fords interchangable parts manufacturing line, but with mcdonalds order panels telling the monkey what part to put in and where. I don't see the big innovation with so called "custom" pc's...
I haven't read the article, but that's how it works here in the Netherlands: you order the color, the engine, the interior color, airco yes/no, RPM meter, etc, etc. That's sounds like more choice than with Dell.
In order for this company to compete they will have to start offering some low prices on cars. Somehow I don't see these guys competing with the big auto companies.
If I recall correctly, GM has already had designs in the works for an electric car that would be built on top of a "skateboard", basically a car base with batteries and electronics all built in. You could pop any shell/interior top onto that base. The idea was that you spent the big bucks on the base, and then spend your fashion dollars on a new top from year to year. In fact, an aftermarket was envisioned for custom, made to order, modularized, pop-together tops for the base.
*** *** You're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to me... ***
This is a great development for the auto industry. Considering the number of features that an automobile has, it is impossible to satisfy every customer. I'm only suprised this took so long in the coming.
...its called "OPTIONS".
What, your "Type-R" stickers aren't doing it for you anymore?
Scott McNealy says it would be absurd to build a car from parts, that's why the PC is dead.
Who the hell do these people think they are making a liar out of Scott?
KFG
The first page of the article was good, good enough to make me go onto the second.
.NET services. Not worth the read imho.
The second page on the otherhand was a GIANT advertisement for Microsoft's
Where I post game reviews, my PSP backgrounds, podca
You can take all the best car parts in the world and put them together and the car probably won't even run. This article even admits that, and says they are developing systems to make the parts communicate and work together. Think about what this means. Car 1 is a normal car with normal parts the break down at a normal rate. Car 2 is a car with the best of each type of part that breaks down slightly less often than the parts of car 1, only for the parts of car 2 you need an extra widget for each of the parts to make the parts communicate.
Now even if you have the most high end parts on the market that never break, you still have 50% more parts total to make them work together. That means that each part has to work 66% better and last 66% longer just to break even. Plus imagine how heavy and awkward the car will be with all these extra widgets. This is just another scam to part fools from their money, it makes absolutely no sense from an engineering point of view. Sure you get pretty platinum coated spark plugs, but will they fit in the engine block!
I hope they are backed by a large political party, or organized crime. Else the big3 will have them summarily executed.
Havent we been here before? I think this is how all car companies start out. The world is too corrupt or im a big fat cynic.
They quoted 'several' cars per model.. sounds like you get a base model and can customize the options.. like at a 'real' dealer.
But the 'options' are much greater then traditional factories.. so its not a bad idea..
Though it *sounds* like another local custom speed shop to me....
Like to see some of its 'products'.. ( and fewer ads. my god, how many ads can you shove on a page? its getting really silly.. oh and i refused to read even ONE of the ads out of frustration.. in case any marketing types are reading )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The title of the article is "Dude, you're gettin' a car". To which I reply : "Dude, where's my Dell??"
Some automaker sites have a "build my car" page where you pick what you want, then they do an inventory search and list some that are close as possible to what you want.
If you go to a dealer and ask to have a special order, they get pretty upset. I guess this is understandable since they really want to move the inventory off their lot instead.
But seriously, it's the inventory sitting around that's the big money drainer on a business like this. If they can radically reduce inventory and also reduce the time from manufacture to customer, it means less inventory carrying expense and happier customers.
Ah BTO, Canada's answer to ELO! Their greatest hit was TCB. /simpsons
Jeremy
"The preconceived notion is that the network will run Unix, but I came to the view that this is a unique opportunity, so why take something that's decades old?" says Lele.
By that logic, the concept of a internal combustion engine is over 100 years old, and seats are thousands of years old. Maybe he shouldn't use those either.
I purchased a new car about a year ago and was dismayed by the way the option packages worked at the dealers.
As a somewhat practical person, I had no interest in wings or crazy wheels or chrome door handles. However, when it came to features I did want, I couldn't understand why the big engine isn't available with a stick shift, or why ABS can't be obtained with a sun roof, or why fog lights can't be purchased with an upgraded stereo model, etc.
Above all else, desiring a manual transmission turned me into an instant showroom pariah, as if I had the plague. "I don't know if they even make that model with a stick shift," said one salesman. I understand that manual transmission cars are purchased with greatly reduced frequency compared to automatics, but why bother selling stick shift cars if you make no effort to allow customers to buy them?
Build-To-Order cars could be the next big thing for informed and frustrated car shoppers, but I have a great deal of apprehension towards the quality of the vehicle and the likelihood I could get it serviced at my local mechanic.
Eric
"The preconceived notion is that the network will run Unix, but I came to the view that this is a unique opportunity, so why take something that's decades old?"
.NET.
Saying that something that's "decades old" won't fit your new business model simply because of its age seems like a short-sighted way to base a decision. Building an IT infrastructure is not only about fitting your needs, but also about one that will serve you reliably. In the end it doesn't matter what the network runs on, but rather that it works, whether it's Unix, Linux, or
Just sounds to me like these cars won't have rubber tires simply because they've been in use on automobiles for a century.
Does this mean we will be seeing Homer's dream car on American roads in the future?
Je ne parle pas francais.
As an Apple user, I will continue to buy BMWs.
But can I get blue neon lights on my custom car to match the ones I have in my case? Oh wait...
That's not a soda... it's a caffeine delivery device!
I want a customized car to match my customized computer.
Well, at least we know where to get a customized computer case for a customized car... Check out the "gallery of Exotix examples".
If I am going to spend even $15000, much less $35000 on ANYTHING, I feel the need to test it. I don't think I know many people that didn't test drive a vehicle before they bought it. Maybe if you were leasing it you wouldn't care, since it would be under warrenty and what not, but still, you just HAVE to drive a car before you buy it.
And isn't 90% of the fun of having any modded item the knowledge that you did it yourself? How many people paid someone else to mod their pc case? When it comes down to it, be it cars or computers, if someone wants to own one that's modded, they will have the knowledge and desire to mod it themselves.
----
Squirrel
One of the things that makes the automobile industry profitable (and has for the last hundred years) is the assembly line. If these cars are built to order, then that does a lot to ruin the assembly line, thus raising production costs significantly. It's one thing to do it with computers, but with something as complex to build as cars, it's a completely different thing. I'd like to see this be successful, but it just seems like it's not profitable for the business.
build to order cars were fairly common. you'd go into the showroom, choose the options you wanted and then wait 2 months.
you could mix and match interiors fabrics with exterior paints. you could choose from different size engines, different size wheels, etc.
doesn't sound too revolutionary.
They build you a car. It is highly customizable. You can choose things like Ralph Lauren seats, pretty much any radio on the market, , etc. There will also be multiple vendors for the same parts. So maybe Tommy Hilfiger seats too, or something along those lines. And you will purchase, configure, and finance the car online. So as others have said, this is NOT the Dell of automakers. This is the white-box PC store of automakers.
Linux: The world's best text-adventure game.
This seems like a really bad idea to me. Why doesn't he just design a few different types of cars and leave it at that. The whole idea of a "custom" car seems ludicrous to me. He should just design and build the best cars he can for the lowest price that he can.
What the market really needs is a truly beautiful shell for a relatively low price with a choice of engine sizes ranging from small and fuel efficient to 12 cylinder twin turbo monsters.
Most of the companies building good looking cars, also charge prices that most of us cannot afford. I don't see any reason why this has to be so.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
You can order your car from them in any color you can imagine with any option you could possibly want.
They hand build it to your specification. It takes them 22 weeks to put it together.
So, been there, done that.
The agricutlural equipment industry has been doing this for years. Deere built its first custom-order robotic assembly plant in the 1970's, and now
o ut =article&articleid=CA220645#06)
(http://www.manufacturing.net/ctl/index.asp?lay
does a lot of QA / QC with automated processes based upon the electronic design sheet.
All Mini Cooper models are built to order. I toured the production plant in Oxford England recently. 100% just-in-time manufacturing process. You'll have a blue British spec followed by a yellow North American spec followed by another color Japanese spec, etc. Of the hundreds of cars in the plant at the time NONE of them were exactly the same as mine and probably not as each other.
Now, if this guy has the same 280 Million British Pounds to invest in building a plant (as was done by BMW group for the Mini), more power to him. I doubt he realizes what he's really getting into. Probably trying to build hype in the media to attract the investors he needs for such a project.
Do really dense people warp space more than others?
The more morons with 3-foot spoilers and neons on their cars, the more destruction can be caused during one night out. Mwahahahaha!
Reminds me of Tucker , I think..?
At any rate I can see it now, he will brave the waters and set a precedence then another garage startup will take the same idea and do it in China or South America take the same idea and produce the same thing at half the price. Then 10 years later you will be able to buy the parts from Fry's, CompUSA, or online and put together your own cars.
I'm so sick of car makers picking the most idiodic interior/exterior color combinations. Beige leather, ick! Why is that so often matched with the blue exterior I want? Why can you only get black leather when you get a boring black exterior?
Also burlwood. I f'ing hate burlwood. Yet almost every top of the line vehicle (Acura, Lexus, etc) slathers it over every surface. Why do the cheapeast Honda Civic have metal or carbon-fiber interior options yet no options on the high end?
When I bought my car, I actually told my dealer I wouldn't mind waiting a month if I could get a specific combination right from the factory. I was even willing to pay transportation. I was told it was impossible. It's no more work for the factory to put one color in place of another, so I'm glad someone finally realized this and is offering the option.
- JoeShmoe
.
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
...because I like to buy fully-loaded cars, but I HATE leather seats and they basically require you to take them when you get all the other options.
From the article: To achieve that distinction, Painter is thinking in computing terms, trying to wrench into existence what he calls an "open source" car.
/. would be physically capable of building, then maintaining, their own custom car.
I just don't know how many geeks that read
the article states that the problem will be getting 50 different vendor computer systems to talk to the central database. it also states that they will be publishing specs (standards) on how to build the parts to fit on the car. the actual difference is that instead of like a GM car where you have only 2 stereo options (the bose or the delco) you can have one of 50 different stereos (which is just an example since there is pretty much a standard there already anyway). see it helps to read the actual article before commenting.
You can custom order your cars at the dealership and have it built and delivered to you in about 8 weeks. If you open up a BMW catalog, they have listings for all the individual options they sell, except for the transmission and engine of course. Their strategy is basically this: They can offer you the basic BMW with an engine and wheels for their advertised 28K. However, to get the car you really want, you'll have to either add on the packages or the individual options. Most of the times the cars with the packages are at the dealership. However, if you want to pick the options, you can custom order it. In fact, I believe, if you go to their website you can customize the car and get an estimate on it. The bad part to all of this is the delay and the dealers will allow very little room in negoiations. Of course, they charge a premium for all the individual options.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
Is annother 1983 Toyota tercel.
The whole car was everything nescesary to be an economy car; with nothing extra. Inexpensive, reliable and efficient, and not austentatious. Mine had 380,000km before it was retired.
Over the past couple of decades "economy" cars have gotten bigger and bigger, and with more and more powerfull engines and bigger price tags. Why does an economy car need 120Hp and sport styling? If they just spent the money on making it more reliable and efficient, there would be much greater improvement.
And they could market a Fleet model with maintenance services at higher price to up the margin.
The facts were that the guy, while a great miltary vehicle parts supplier/contractor was a crazy eyed kind of entrepeneur. His cars were unstable at best (not sabotaged) .... just ask a Tucker owner.
This guy is trying to do the SAME thing Tucker was ... using current suppliers of the big three + his own contacts to "build cars you want... not cars THEY want you to have"" - note that the last line is almost a word for word advertisement from an old Tucker ad I saw in the National American History Museum.
I wish this guy sounded like he had a chance, competition is always good, but when public safety (others and my own) is put at risk on such a large scale, we should all be skeptical.
While some may debate the next sentence, it helps put this scale: A custom computer company hardly puts everyone in my city at risk if I buy one of their products and it's a lemon. A car company puts the entire range of population with my car under risk if it is a lemon.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
www.scion.com Flat base price for each model and then you add options. I've never bought a car, so maybe I'm missing something. gotta say that xB has a nice ugly/sexy thing going for it. I'd drive one.
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle...
Making them fit is not exactly rocket science. There are all sorts of aftermarket replacement parts you can put on a car yourself, and it all works out just fine. There are standard sizes for a lot of components (like spark plugs), and if you go down to Pep Boys they have books telling you what parts are compatible with which cars. I can't think of any case where you have to put in some kind of extra adapter widget, as you suggest. Spark plugs are a trivial example, you can replace a lot more than that...heck, on the old Beetle you could replace the cylinders...Between increasing the engine displacement and replacing the carburetor, crankshaft, etc., a dedicated Beetle enthusiast can triple the horsepower and smoke unsuspecting Corvettes at the light :)
These guys are just letting you pick all your aftermarket parts up front...plus giving you more options for upholstery, dashboard, etc.
That 'lil fucker did drive my car around the block back then!! I knew it all along! He'll have to make his own-to-order this time, he's not driving mine!
http://tinyurl.com/3t236
http://www.btoauto.com/
It would have been nice to see exactly what the article was talking about, by linking to it in the summary...you know, because this is slashdot.
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
Can't find the actual article I was seeking, but on a similar note, here is a less-popular view that says the reason Tucker failed is because the cars themselves were less good than promised, rather than because of evil machinations by competitors. (Though there may have been quite a bit of that, too ;))
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
The article doesn't address whether tall people like me will be able to spec the custom cars such that we will be able to fit in 'em. I've sat in every car at auto shows and found little satisfaction, even in super-expensive models like BMWs. With great difficulty, I can buy shoes -- not true of cars. I would love to be able to buy a car that fits me.
Won't get far, unless this guy can get his passed...
http://www.smartcar.com/
Such a foolish waste of resources _not_ to let these things go ahead...
"Eustace? Eustace? Are you there? Are you there?" = John Leeming
http://www.btoauto.com/index.html
then came accross this:
Lost my interest quickly after that.
What next? Case mods? Overclocking? Would adding memory make my car any faster?
The exceptions to this are Japanese and (I think) U.S. cars. These cars are normally sold in Europe already containing every imaginable extra, so the only thing left to choose is the color. Since it takes some time to freight those cars over to Europe using ships, importers normally have a stack of them ready at all times so that you can get them as soon as you have paid.
But if he's really going to try to do something new in the industry, as well a greatly increase the ability to build cards to "spec", I would suggest he seriously consider rethinking the way that car electronics mount and interconnect. I think it's insane the way dashboards are built today, and I'm not crazy about how hard it is to change a radio or install something extra like my ham radio. What the industry really needs is someone not trying hard to lock the customer in, but rather making things much more modular so the customer has the greatest number of choices. I would love to see a system where the instrument pannel, radio, gps/map, and any other electronics (including the computer) are all standaridized "rack" units networked and powered together, such that any device can be located anywhere in the system. If I want a bigger spedometer and tack, I should just be able to plug it into a couple of rack unit spaces. If I want my moving map right in the middle of my dash I just move the speedometer over (or maybe replace it with one integrated into the oil pressure / alternator / warning lights/ trip computer display) and put the video module where the speedometer was. If I get a ham radio made for this technology it should fit into an available bay and cleanly integrate with the rest of the car audio, letting me hear it through the speakers and optionally muting the CD player when there is radio traffic.
Eventually I would see this leading to "soft" displays, where you can use a pannel for whatever you want, speedometer, tach, warning lights, trip computer, or any new feature you program into a flexiable computer. True button switch pannels could be used, or touch screens that reconfigure themselves as needed, depending on the user's preference. Users could even elect, if they wished, to replace a digital speedometer with a white analog needle module (with appropriate electronics in the module) if they prefer that style of instrument over digital displays.
Sure, major players are not doing this now because they want to lock you into their stuff. But a modular system should give a truly flexiable design, lower overall costs, and much great utility. If someone is going to claim to want to make build to order cars, them this approach should be a must.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
1. They're looking to go with .Net instead of Unix or another stable, secure system. Insert your own jokes here.
/ 0,15114,465792,00.html
- 9999_1n13workers.html
e ral_issues/hot_issues_in_congress/legal_reform/tre vor_law_group.html
2. They're building a Unionized auto plant. Obviously, this guy has no idea why big automakers have constantly moved their plants from heavily-unionized northern states to right-to-work states in the sun belt. Notice what a great benefit being heavily unionized was for the steel industry...
3. He's starting a new business in California. This is the same California, mind you, where Gray Davis and the Democratic Legislature have been making it almost impossible for businesses to operate profitably in. If he was serious about lowering costs, he'd be opening his plant someplace like Nevada or Texas.
Here are few sources to read up on the current California economic crises:
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/investing/articles
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20030713
http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/legislative_issues/fed
http://www.americandaily.com/item/1853
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Here's a short piece about the founding of this company... written over 2 years ago. I'll be surprised if this company ever gets out of the "preparing to launch" phase...
filmcritic.com - Movie reviews on Internet time
The first thing that strikes me is that the choice in web services was depicted as a choice between Linux and .Net. Of course its really J2EE/Linux vrs. .Net (Mono excluded, but at this stage in its development I really doubt they're looking to use Mono).
Nitpicking from a java advocate aside, I see some tremendous complexity in the IT system and they can't do it with current technology. If they succeed they'll be doing something new and exciting.
The problem is with change management of data formats. If you've got all of these different formats of data (the article mentioned: Web services, EDI, email, and fax!). It's extremely difficult to even build a model thats going to allow communication between systems talking in such different ways. The real problem, though, is when you do design that extremely complex system, because of the way the proposed company is being set up, is that you have no way to maintain the consistency of all of the involved data formats.
Here is an example. Supplier A sends its information to the company with a flat file. Its product number is in a five digit field. Supplier A changes it to a six digit field. Hilarity ensues. (fark)
No control of the suppliers systems = a very complex system. The standard responses to managing this complexity (usually amounting to stick the data in a self referential data format like xml) does not work here because they can't demand that their suppliers adhere to any particular format (according to the article).
Anyway sounds like a cool idea, I'd like to see how they're going to pull off the system to make it a reality.
since BTO is building a unionized plant in San Bernardino
Well, so much for the requirement of being ultra efficient and timely.
I asked Dell to send me a _REAL_ Windows XP installation CD with my Latitude laptop. (aka not one of those rescue CDs).
And amazingly, when I got my Latitude, it had (albeit in seperate wrapping) an original XP CD as well as full manuals for it.
I guess Euro-Dell customer service is slightly different than the US service.
With their most plain model, "Celta". You can customize every possible aspect of it (color, interior decoration, all optionals, wheels, etc.) :-)
check it if you can read Brazilian Portuguese
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
August 1, 2003
Dude, You're Gettin' A Car
By Larry Dignan
SANTA MONICA, Calif. Scott Painter is a car guy. At age 12, he started an auto detailing service. For $40 a pop, he'd pick up your car, drive it around the neighborhood on the sly and deliver a sparkling vehicle back to you. Half of the 14 businesses the serial entrepreneur has started--including Web site CarsDirect--involved automobiles.
"I've always loved cars," says Painter, 34. "The auto detailing was mostly about driving the cars around the block."
Now he wants to be the custom car guy. Painter is in the process of launching Build-To-Order Inc., a company that aims to do for manufacturing and marketing of autos what Dell Computer did for personal computers.
Chairman Painter sketches out the grand plan as he flies along Interstate 10 West in his BMW 745i to an old Air Force base in San Bernardino. This is the proposed site of BTO's first plant, just off of fabled Route 66. The location, an international trade zone, will enable BTO to fly in parts and then send finished product out by rail or truck. It's also a short hop to Los Angeles International Airport and the Port of Long Beach.
At this site, the company he chairs plans to build highly customized vehicles starting at $35,000, by outsourcing just about all aspects of their construction to suppliers whom he consolidates on this spot. If successful, BTO can post net profit margins he estimates at between 15% and 20%, unheard of in an industry where the bottom-line margin ranges from zero to 3%. BTO will have 400 employees, excluding suppliers. In 2002, Ford's North American operations averaged 162,000 employees.
If successful, a wholly new American maker of automobiles will create customized cars in low volume--fewer than 20,000 cars under one model. To achieve that distinction, Painter is thinking in computing terms, trying to wrench into existence what he calls an "open source" car.
Build-To-Order will publish specifications for all parts of the car, to encourage suppliers to build components to standard sockets and sizes. As a result, by Painter's plan, customers could choose from 90 different stereos. Ralph Lauren would provide seats in a host of fabrics and colors. Even Prada seats are not out of the question.
BTO's first car, which individuals watching the startup say will be called Auburn, is a fastback that slightly resembles the Chrysler Pacifica. The Auburn nameplate has not surfaced since the Great Depression.
The Auburn will use ready-to-hook-together modules, says Painter. Suppliers such as Johnson Controls, which makes interiors for General Motors and Ford, can use snazzy dashboards that otherwise would never see the light of day because slashdot sucks and they aren't produced in volume. Door panels from suppliers such as Magna International and Lear will have parts that can be customized with leather, khaki or another fabric.
Like Dell, this will allow Build-To-Order to rely on suppliers to keep the pieces of the product up to date. And the customer still gets a state-of-the-art vehicle. "Building a car isn't rocket science," says Painter. "Ten years ago it was, but now all that knowledge is for hire."
Build-To-Order's specialty will be assembly. Painter has divvied up the car into 13 modules such as interiors, chassis, panels and braking systems. Each will be pulled together by a supplier, such as Johnson Control or Dana. Each supplier's factory will sit around a cross--the assembly line--which resembles a street intersection. And each of those suppliers' factories may in turn be ringed by parts vendors that supply components that arrive minutes before being used in, say, a transmission.
For BTO to be successful, this will mean "real-time" management of such potential suppliers as chassis maker Visteon, steering vendor TRW and fuel injection systems maker Robert Bosch. To make that work, BTO's information system will have to exchange data with the existing systems of a disparate
I know that all large European car makers are doing this already. My VW Golf that I bought last year was custom made, as are most VW's that you buy. You have 4 basic trims (Base, Comfortline, Highline and Trendline) and you can add options, features, colors (inside and outside), fabrics, ... like you wish. These trim levels are even not decided by VW, but by the importer in each country. A Base model in Belgium does not have traction control, in Germany that is standard on all Golf's.
Only very few cars of the VW/Audi group are built by order of the factory, and most of these company ordered cars end up in the showroom to give the public a general idea of what is available. Often you get even a discount on those models because they are not 100% configured to your own wishes....
Volkswagen has a "car configurator" on their website that can make thousands of possible Golf configurations.
Do you really mean you cannot order your own car in the USA? I'm stunned... I thought buying stock cars was almost impossible these days...
Henry Grau (the numbnut referenced in the Smartcar link above) was TAKING ORDERS for these cars 12 months ago.
then Daimler Chrysler saw his webpage and said "what you doin' fool? "
then he changed the website to say they were going to sell Hydrogen and Battery-powered versions of the SMART in the US. Said they had everything all set, any day now.....any day.... any day.....
then the website pops up with the current message:
"They won't even allow us one in the US for testing"!!!!
Now THAT'S a foolish waste of resources. Lead people on for months, telling them that you can get these cool cars into the US and then you fall flat on your face because Customs won't allow you to bring one in. Who forgot to do their homework?
Nothing instills confidence like a car dealer who works out of a PO box in Margate Florida.
First of all, 100% JIT manufacturing? You mean inventory management? IF so, check the parking lot outside and nearby. There'll be trucks waiting to unload their inventory. JIT inventory management is somewhat of a crock. It's just an accounting trick, really.
Second of all, all MINIs are not BTO. A friend bought one off the lot in the very first month. Impossible if they are all BTO. How would one get built without an order?
Third of all, all lines run with different colored and such cars next to each other. That's old news. That's why your car as a build tag with RPO codes, so they know what to bolt on. Truly fancy manufacturing lines run multiple cars (some even cars and trucks!) back to back on the same line.
that sorta defeats the whole idea of assembly line mass production
Repeal the DMCA!
In case anyone doesn't know, most 'cars' are built on only a few chassis' usually developed with co-operation between the large manufacturers, for example GM's medium size chassis is the basis for such diverse cars as the Astra in the UK and the SAAB from sweden, FORDS mondeo chassis is the basis, for amongst others ,the x-type jag ( and will also be the basis of the new land rover freelander) these are designed with modularity in mind, the external bodywork all fitting to certain data points as are the suspension pick-up points and engine mounts, they are designed to allow for as much flexibility in the styling points (such as the interior and exterior panels) while standardising as much of the equipment as possible .
They found out Americans don't like waiting for their cars to be built and delivered. So they shelved it.
The showrooms would have been along the lines of the Scion ones. Only 1 of each model available to test drive.
That idea may come back.
As to making customized cars, well, good luck getting DOT authorization. If it can be done, I think it is a great idea. People with significant wealth would never put up with having a house that looked just like their neighbors, or wearing a dress same as someone else's, but they buy bone-stock cars that anyone else could show up with?
I think a standard build platform with custom bodies could take off.
This has been done before. Companies like Aston Martin, Bentley and Rolls royce will go to great lengths to make sure you get what you want. What makes this guys idea so great is that it will be customizable cars for the genreal masses. Most people looking for a new car will be in this guys target market.
Choosing the lesser of two evils is a choice for evil.
So, will I be able to dual boot my car?
But they've already got case mods and overclocking for cars. And if you count the tuning boards, adding a chip to a car for faster performance is already available, and those chips usually have a tiny amount of RAM. So really, the car market and the computer market are already quite similar.
Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses
When am I gonna be able to purchase a Canyonero?
Can you name the truck with four wheel drive, smells like a steak, and seats thirty five?
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Well, it goes real slow with the hammer down, it's the country-fried truck endorsed by a clown
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Hey, hey!
Twelve yards long, two lanes wide, sixty five tons of American pride!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Top of the line in utility sports, unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
She blinds everybody with her super high beams, she's a squirrel-squashin', deer-smackin' drivin' machine
Canyonero! Canyonero! Canyonero!
Whoa, Canyonero! Whoa!
Many automakers in europe already do this. Their dealership is little more then a few cubicles and one or two floor models to ooh and aah at. There are no "in stock" vehicles. You place your order with one of the workers there where you specify everything exactly as you want it. paint color, interior color, every option, which wheels, etc. And they offer many more options - even on the same cars that are sold here in the US - presumably us Americans are too dumb and would be confused by having so many options. Anyhow, once your order is placed, you are given an order number and a delivery date - usually two months or so down the road - when your car will arrive. Exactly as you ordered it.
Any E.U. citizens care to comment / elaborate on this?
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
Maybe a new US car company isn't as absurd as it sounds. If you look at Ford/GM/Chrysler's problems, one of the biggest burdens they have is their pension systems. From a cold blooded capitalist perspective, it makes sense to just let them die and start from scratch with a young workforce and no pension burden.
I'm not saying that's a good thing. Quite the contrary, it's another example of how inherently immoral capitalism is. I'm just suggesting that it gives an up and comer a bit of credibility.
Michael Dell says he wants to diversify the business
Repeal the DMCA!
Tired of looking at the same 8000 identical models of silver nissan ultimas, followed by red ford taurus.
No wonder truck drivers fall asleep. It's like counting sheeps.
Hey sorry, but in "Old Europe" Mercedes Benz and all other brands like BMW, Porsche, Audi builds its cars custom made!
Try the Mercedes Benz Car-Configurator. Every configurable car can you buy at your local Mercedes Benz dealer.
That's the way cars are built in Europe!
NSG
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
When I ordered my new Z4, I wanted Titanium Silver exterior and red leather interior. As usual, no dealer within 500 miles had the combo I wanted.
I ordered it, got a productions number, and in 23 days I had *my* car...built to order, custom colours, the works.
I've heard people on here bitching that you can't go into some dealers and do this...but again, the truth of the matter is that they're trying to sell you what they have in stock. They don't want to give up that production slot to get you into something...they have somethings that are depresciating on the lot as we speak.
Now, the truly awesome part about BTO...the parts/brands/fabrics/and designs you want. The article talks about 90 different types of head units, seats by Prada, color combos out the wazoo. Who the hell wants to put up with the fact that BMW puts their own head unit in all their cars? Changing it looks butt ugly...but the BMW head unit has no Aux in, no mini disc, no other options. So being able to customize the components in the car makes it cool right off the bat. Imagine having an option for a built in cradle for an iPod or other MP3 unit. It's not all that far fetched. With the engineering skills and the ability to do this on a somewhat tight timeframe with manufacturers, suppilers, etc...BTO could be a lot of fun to configure/buy et al.
That's what makes BTO rock.
They could also become a concept not meant for this world...no matter how sophisticated out IT infrustructre has become.
Even better, they'd have 6-person teams assigned to each car, and they found quality jumped without an increase in cost. Each team set its own vacation time and after a little kid-in-a-candyshop thing it settled towards 4 to 6 weeks (low for Europe). Team members worked better than assembly line because they didn't want to let down the team.
Don't know what happened after the Ford buyout.
Didn't anyone else think it was kind of ridiculous to focus any attention at all on the choice of middleware in the non-existent IT organization of a non-existent "virtual" automobile company? As if the choice of .NET or not is really going to make more than the teensiest smidgen of difference whether this company survives or not. There are SO SO SO many other things that matter SO much more.
Though I have to say, ruling out *any* technology, be it a computer technology, or a welding technology, simply because it's ten, twenty, or a hundred years old, sounds like the kind of decision either a teenager or a PHB would make.
It really is very close to JIT...
They really have almost no inventory, just a chain of trucks coming in as you say. They have worked out deals with all suppliers to keep material coming on demand, so they have almost no stock to speak of.
Yes they build some base specs for dealers. That's still BTO though, as they just decide what base specs are popular and then put in some orders for them. I don't think the dealers had a say though, at least at first... there are some MINI corporate just ships out so there's a good "Mix" at the dealer. Just because it's MINI specifying a config and not a customer does not make it BTO...
The MINI line goes beyond color, in that you not only have the body color but also the roof color (which can differ) and a lot of custom accessories.
Somewhere on MINIUSA is a factory tour, take a look - very impressive. Also you can configure cars there and submit an order for one.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I have a hard enough time getting a built-to-order hamburger the way I want it... what makes me think that I won't have the same trouble with a car??? ;-)
I wonder how long it will take Microsoft to get into the car industry.
They offer the Cooper and the Cooper S - similar but different hoods and engines. These all come along on the same assembly line, making it the "fancy" line you mentioned...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I would like to see automakers make a CHEAP car instead.
you know when cars first became popular you used to be ablet o choose the engine the chassis and the body
and the reason teh ywere mass produced by henry ford was to bring the price down so everyone could have one...
i saw a thing on the history channel (or mybe discovery?) about how the trend in the auto industry aws moving towards snap-together parts (like big legos) where you could literally snap your bumper off and put on anew one a door etc ahd a car totally customized to what you wanted
this appears to just be a restaurant style approach to this (do people in restaurants always order what's on ht emenu? of course not but they get it anyway)
You can check out the MINI configurator online at MINI USA. Note that it's all Flash - but I have to admit it's fairly impressive, and well built. I think it's the first use of Flash I ever saw that I didn't say "Why they hell do they have Flash here?".
What I like about the system is that you really can have just about any option with any other option - the only artificial limit is some interior and exterior colors are not available on both models (which is not to say they couldn't do it, they wanted to keep some colors exclusive to each model). You can opt for traction control, auto AC, sunroof, etc etc etc and get a car with just the features you want and without the features you don't (like big heavy wheels - who needs them?)
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
yeah, elo kicked ass, whereas bto were ass.
I used to work in the car, and my dad was a VEEP in the car industry. This is very different to how people build cars today.
Yes, you can order options and yes you can tune the car. However, all of that is specific to a car marker, model and year. There are not many truly interchangeable parts. Tires is about as generic as it goes, but even that is changing.
What this guy is proposing is quite revolutionary. He is proposing on making the car a set of lego blocks that can interchangeably be installed. This is quite the task. He is saying that the parts will adhere to "Open Source" standards that anybody could use. In effect he is saying he willing to give the specs and is inviting competition. Quite the idea...
I would not call him the Dell of the industry, more like the PC Clone of the industry. Imagine having a car where you could take out the seats and replace them with any model. INSTEAD of today having to specifically define the car maker, model and year. Or worse specifically go to the car marker.
If he is successful he will bring much needed innovation into the car industry... Namely, electric, hydrogen powered cars, etc. It will allow the "common" person to tinker and come up with neat and interesting ideas...
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
If it's similar to anything, it's similar to the GM idea of building on the "skateboard" car.. However this idea is NOT like "picking a red interior, black exterior, cd player, and sunroof" .. those are average joe bob options, nothing new or exciting at all there. This NEW idea, is about being able to customize every aspect of the car, not just 3-4 "options".. If anything, it's a hundred more options, and having the ability to customize things that you normally could not, or would have to go to an aftermarket shop to do it.
You can simply wait six months and get the same model for thousands less. It might have a thousand miles on it. I would never buy a new car just to get the options I want.
However... I could see myself buying this kind of car, if the options were right. The problem is, (and has been) getting the right kind of options. Yes, I want a fuel cell powering my vehicle. Probably not going to get the SUV model in the near future. Yes, I want and inboard dash that runs a decent navigation os. Probably can do, but you need to get it from one of the distributors that manufacture it. I want an onboard real-time diagnostics system like they have at "authorized dealers" shops so that I can diagnose the problem before I have to pay a couple hundred dollars for inspection. I want a jet cockpit harness for a seatbelt too. Did I mention I want to pay about 15 thousand for it?
Cause that's what Dell and other PC manufacturers have done. With the open PC format they have commoditized the hardware enough, so that real expenses are marketing and manufacturing, not the purchasing of parts itself. Dell has gone ahead of the curve by developing it's own printers and PDA's and charging less for more. The truth is, unless you can control your distributors and supply chain, you will not be making the 15-20 percent that you want. You will be eaten alive by every factor you cannot control, namely price for parts and labor. I would buy a car at the 35000 mark, if it were truly customizable, but I don't know if that is possible. Just ask Dell.
http://cincyboys.blogspot.com/ Everything Cincinnati. Including the word 'Finnih'
Somehow I don't see such a huge operatation running seamlessly on Windows servers (as Microsoft would lead you to believe). I'm thinking of the commericial where the guy changes his mind about the car color, the salesman types the changes in to his wireless handless and the manufacturing plant instantly changes the painting of the car. Year right.
Wouldn't SAP/R3 on Sun enterprise servers be more in line? I hope their CIO gets a clue.
I wanted to get excited about BTO, Inc., but the whole story reeks of bullshit.
Commoditizing the PC means lower prices and more features, but it also leads to increased complexity, long-term backwards compliance (future hinderance), and more stability issues.
I would hate to see cars take on all of these traits.
I'm no expert on cars, but I think the fact that my car has all of these custom components built specifically to achieve its unique look and performance goals are a plus, even if they do fatten the manufacturer's pockets every time I need a replacement.
And what's the deal with their CIO comparing Linux(AMP?) to Microsoft.NET? He must be some king moron if this is the kind of question he's grappling with when the article is talking about the manufacturer parts brokering system they're going to have to build. I wonder if (hope?) he's just trying to put on a show for the PHBs who keep pushing Microsoft.
I want rack and peanut steering.
He had me right up to the point of using .Net. I expected something free (and stable) like TRON or Linux.
I want something reliable for $35,000 and I can't imagine the company giving themselves away to Microsoft.
Guess there goes another American industry.
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
Is this the $35,000 car? Wonder what features the base $35,000 car has? That's the average price of your semi-luxury sedan or your mid-sized SUV, so if it can offer the features of either of those vehicles for $35,000 then maybe this will succeed.
I'm hoping it'll finally be a car I can work on myself and not have to run to the dealer everytime!! Tired of oil filters being jammed way up in the engine compartment.
Think they should investigate a bargain-base turbo 4 cylinder for the street racers out there, something like that new turbo Neon SRT but looks cool (guys don't drive Neons).
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
If all they are going to provide are options for seat fabric or radios, then this is not all that attractive of an idea. If, however, they wish to offer many options for the external appearance of the vehicle as well, I think many people would be interested. However, how will the company satisfy crash testing regulations and other safety inspections that are done to *completed* cars prior to DOT approval?
I want to be able to turn the key then spend a couple of hours telling my new car what type of tyres I have, where they are located (on the wheels), how many passengers, where I am going, where I have been, what size engine is installed, gearbox parameters, destination... this is so much more fun than just turning the key and driving it.
I'd wonder how successful this business was. Personally, I wouldn't give my car keys to a 12 year old. Maybe I'm just uptight?
Speak before you think
If and when they pull off the logistics involved, they will not only nail that gross margin right on the money, but will shock the rest of the industry into following suit. $35,000 is not an obscene amount of money for a car nowadays, and the exotic aspect of so much customization is offset by the fact most of the componentry is mass-produced. If your power steering pump blows up, you can pick one at any auto parts store instead of having to special order it to Japan or Germany.
Car makers already use "just in time" inventories because they only spend for inventory the bare minum they will neeed over the next few hours. Land shipping becomes critical because parts arrive at the assembly lines right as the inventory nears zero.
Once they get name recognition with their boutique car, they can figure out a way to sell a cheap car that just has air conditioning,removable mp3 player and scotchguard sealed seats and then sell it to college students for less than $10,000.
Pedro
----
The Insomniac Coder
...doesn't he see?
Computers and cars are totally different purchases. I buy Dell, not because I can customize, but because it is cheap quality. If a computer was a car, I would always buy an Apple Mac, because the main purpose of cars is to show off or "define your character". A private car is not a "workhorse".
And the reason why we customize computers are different from the reasons why we customize cars. Anyway most of the "car customization" already happens at choosing a brand and model, after that most consumers don't give a ****. Would you rather have a Mercedes with simple interior or a Hyundai with Prada interior?
BUT: Would you rather have an HP with a big hard disk/lots of RAM/fast processor or a Dell with small hard disk/RAM/processor?
Just-in-time = Minimize your inventory of subcomponents by ordering as late and as little as possible from suppliers.
Build-to-order = Build a car if and only if ordered by a customer
Now, are you sure that Mini Cooper are built to order ? If you can go to a dealer and drive one home then clearly it is not.(I don't doubt that they practice just-in-time inventory, it is industry standard)
Tor
Build to order over the 'net or at a kiosk is great, but what happens when it's time for a scheduled service? Or you have to perform maintenace? Or something breaks and you have a warranty claim. And, God forbid, what about recalls? They don't seem to have a dealer/service network to handle any of that - just a kiosk at LAX.
The biggest problem I see these guys running into is the service network. All other manufacturers have a developed network (except for exotics like Ferrari, Laborghini, etc - but for that money who cares?). They will fail because only a very few people will buy their cars without seeing the service network problem solved.
If you had to crash test every conceivable variation of seat/engine/body panel/dashboard the costs would be prohibitive. If you didn't safety test each combination, no-one would buy them & no insurer would insure them.
Also, the Dell comparison is silly; cars are an order of magnitude more complicated than PC's.
I've been getting so sick of the big automaker's screwing around with various hybrids. It's about time someone stepped up to to the plate to offer "cars made to order", so I can finally order the all-electric one-half-width SUV-killing 55 MPH battering ram of my dreams.
get me blowjobs.
32e296c8f1774a9d
I'm surprised I have not seen people speak of the downsides of cars like this. When cars are all basically the same, some things are a whole lot easier.
Such as safety. When cars are the same, government can crash test a couple of them, and then everyone knows more or less how all of them will behave in accidents. If cars could be so radically different, how could the government crash test them? They would have to crash just about every major combination. Also, how about recalls? Certain combinations could be potential deathtraps, but no one will notice because so few of those combinations are on the road.
Not to mention constructing the cars to be safe in the first place. The cars sitting on lots right now are the results of numerous internal crash tests and simulations done by the manufacturers to get everything just right. I wouldn't want to go out and drive some combination of engines/body type/chassis that has not been tested extensively like that.
Also, it will be a hassle to repair such a car. With cars all alike, dealers can stock the parts to fix. Also, it's a lot easier, quicker, and cheaper for the mechanics to repair cars that are basically identical, once they learn the in's and out's of the vehicle. Also, they also know exactly what needs to be done and what parts are needed when I tell them I need a new alternator in my '97 Maxima. With these custom cars, something may go wrong and they would have no idea where to start, or what they will need to fix it. Expect more labor, and more expensive parts to fix these cars. I would also count on being without a car for days and weeks while they wait for the custom parts to arrive to fix your car.
I would also bet these cars have a lot more problems. Cars now, especially the Japanese cars, are very refined. With cars alike, trends are easy to spot and problems can be addressed. While the Toyota Camry may be a boring car, it's an extremely reliable one because the design has been refined for a long time, and all the major bugs worked out. A custom car would probably run as well as a first model year car at best (Ford Focus anyone?), and chances are much worse. Expect lots of little bugs and nuisances, and a few major problems thrown in.
Also, on the idea of parts and repairs, parts could get pretty obscure in a few years, especially if the company goes under. With any reasonably popular model of car, atleast there are thousands just like it to salvage parts from. It sure is nice to go to the junkyard and find several cars just like mine that I can part out. That simply won't be happening with these custom cars.
So while the idea picking and choosing custom colors, radios, seats, and options as we know them now from the major automakers is great - I think the idea of being about to pick and choose things like the chassis, body styles, drive trains, alternators, brake systems etc. are a bad idea.
It's about time someone brought back the Checker Cab.
No Zen is good zen
There are downsides to this business model however. Dell do not have sufficient production capacity to meet peak demand. Say you order a computer today and they tell you it will be shipped in two days. But then right after you place your order, a Fortune 500 customer puts in an order for 1000 new desktop machines. Guess who gets priority? That's right - you get bumped and end up waiting a couple of weeks or more, and get pissed off at them.
Cars don't have the depreciation problem. A new car will pretty much hold its value while it sits on the lot. The exception is the time around summer when the new model-years come out. That's predictable though, and the industry knows how to handle it.
BTO is far more than just a different exterior and interior color, so actually BMW does not do "this".
Otherwise every manufacture would already do "this", since, last I checked, I could order a car in any available interior/exterior color from any car dealer.
It's good to see someone finally getting off their duffs and doing it. Now if they can do it with off the shelf hybrid parts, carbon fibre body shells, etc. the hypercar will be that much closer to realisaiton.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
My last two Boxster's were built to order to my specifications. Waiting 3+ months for your car to arrive is a bitch, but the anticipation can be fun.
There are literally hundreds of options/choices that you can pick. I really like the idea of everything being "a la carte" so you don't end up paying for features that you don't care about. I also like the idea of knowing that my car is +/- unique (or at least relatively unique)...
Evolution: love it or leave it
If you're running Windows I don't want to be on the same road as you!
Everyone keeps saying this company is not like dell, but I don't think they are looking at the statment the way this guy ment it. I think he made the comment from a supply chain managment perspective then a computer industry POV. For instance, he says that he will have his suppliers handle most of the assembly, simularly dell has assembled parts delivered to a UPS wharehouse where UPS does the assembly (I think UPS, it could be some other shipping company). Many people are under the impression that Dell specializes in making computers, but in actualality Dell's real specialty is logistics. That is what this company wants to be in the auto industry. Good luck, because that level of marketing is hard to achive.
Business News and Resources: www.usasource.net
I cringe at the thought of the Cowboy Neal-mobile...
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
I want a horn here, here and here, when you're angry you can never find a horn!
Toyota's been capable of doing this since 1999 ... with only a 5-day turnaround:
u to 585.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/money/consumer/autos/ma
The entire SUV debacle only demonstrates how the build-to-order thing can't reach out to the people who need it most. Mainstream auto industry is overly concerned with selling on the basis of style and performance, not longevity and efficiency. Combine that with BTO's starting price, and you can see that the man with the magic combination of Eli Whitney and Henry Ford probably still hasn't been born.
I think of each model of car or truck as a hand-crafted machine that has been fed through a StarTrekkian matter duplicator. Sure, each model is like each other member of its class, but jump between classes and you run into significant compatibility problems. These classes exist due to pressures of style, not function (car, van and truck differences aside). The industry has been artificially complicated, and the concept of workability with the equipment has long fallen by the wayside (if indeed it ever had any predominance in automotive management).
It would really be nice if someone did come up with a Unicar (I have forgotten the citation -- you'd have to google it), so you can buy into a car that is reconfigurable and repairable for 10 years. But this kind of mentality is the one of a man who expects to own something, not to rent it for the rest of his life. Obviously, with car and house prices being as they are in America, this is now a nation of renters, not owners, so the Unicar is as dead as the Edsel.
[You have a stable society when some nut guns down a schoolyard and the law doesn't change.]
The Microbus you mention was the first real minivan. The first third-door pickup was the VW double-cab Microbus 'pickup'. These models were produced in the 1960s -- decades before Chrysler ever came up with the idea of copying.
... it outright lies and steals credit. I bristle every time I see them claim they were "first" at these things. But then ... this is capitalist America. He who lies and doesn't get caught wins because Americans are too dumb and cattle-minded to check facts.
The first Microbus was built, I believe, in 1954. The Voyager/Caravan came out when? 1980something?
Chrysler not only never takes risks
i am a soviet space shuttle
Oh yeah.
VW also made, back in the 60s, Microbuses with doors on both sides, thus beating the doors-on-both-sides minivans by several decades as well. They even made some sliding-door split-window buses way back then, even though most of that type had double doors on one side only. I have personally seen double-door Vanagons made for the German military, so they may even still be making those, and I saw a double-door splittie bus today, at a show.
Take that, Chrysler!
i am a soviet space shuttle
Taylor guitars (www.taylorguitars.com) manufactures and sells custom made guitars, and seems to be doing pretty well. They are a bit pricey, so not everybody can afford one. I'm assuming the same will go with the BTO cars.
Have you ever looked under the hood of your Chevy? Chances are that it is running a Mitsubishi engine!
Actually, it's more likely it would be a Saab, Opel, Holden, Vauxhall, Fiat, Subaru, Isuzu, or Suzuki power plant, since those are foreign companies in which GM owns a controlling share and commonly shares parts with. You'd likely find Mitsubishi power plants in Chrysler cars, and Mazda engines in Ford products, but I digress.
I'm not saying that certain engines can't be dropped into certain cars with little or no modification. I'm also not saying that you won't find domestic cars with foreign engines or foreign cars with domestic engines. What I am saying is that you can't just take any old engine and just drop it into any old car and expect it to work with little modification. You can't even always do that when you stick to cars in the same product line. You can't put the wonderful Mazda MX-6 (Ford Probe) V-6 powerplant into a Mazda Miata. Sure, it'll fit. You can even overcome the fact that the MX-6 is a front wheel drive car, and the Miata is rear wheel drive. What you can't overcome is the fact that the engine was tilted to the rear in the original application for hood clearance. When you stand it up straight for rear wheel drive, you have problems with oil flow through the engine, and the engine burns up.
You can also cram a Corvette V-8 into your RX-7 or your Miata, but no one's gotten the latter to actually run yet, and judging from past motor swaps I've seen, they are very rarely as trouble free as the original motor. Not that the motor itself is to blame, but modern engines have a lot of inputs provided to them by various electronic and mechanical bits inside the car, all of which you must find a way to interface (it's not a common interface, remember), and then you have to somehow match everything up to the driveline, fuel systems, etc. Very rarely is an engine conversion a 'bolt-on' operation, and even then, it's usually because the two engines share a common chassis somewhere in the original manufacturer's catalog.
The motorhome industry has been operating like this for years, you chose the interior, the engine, instrumentation, accessories, placement of the windows, type of chairs etc. At the end of the process you have D.O.T. approved vehicle on the road. Of course, you pay for the custom options.
Yes, they do, and have you checked into how much a motorhome costs? Granted, they are big, but they are very expensive because a lot of stuff is custom fabricated and custom ordered. They also don't deal in the bulk that most car manufacturers do, which enables them to take more time with each vehicle. You also don't get a huge range of choices, in the lower lines, you may only get one(!) floorplan and one engine choice. Even in the upper lines, you may only get five choices of floorplans and five engine choices, and your engine choices are usually those offered in whatever vehicle the original chassis came from. You don't just get to pick any engine. I've seen full sized pickups with more options.
A far better comparison would have been a Maybach or a Rolls-Royce. They do plenty of personalization, allowing you to pick any color your want and any wood and fabric you want -- even if they don't have it. They'll even modify the car within reason. They also cost a ton of money, and a big part of that is the custom service you're getting. However, it's a bit like comparing apples and oranges. These BTO cars are meant to compete at low prices. Maybach can charge pretty much whatever it wants.
You need to hang out at the local performance shop. Cars, trucks, and cycles were hacked long before the first Univac.
Do you mean the local rice boy shop, or do you mean a shop where they do serious work? I'm not going to claim I hang out with Jesse James or anything, but I know my way around a
-------------------------------------------------
It still wouldn't be the same unless they added a little radiation seeping out though.
On a side note, I used to worry that in 20 years we'd see a bunch of geeks yelling and screaming about how their case mods caused their infertility, then realized that none of them would be in the position necessary to realize it anyway.
The first Sport Utility Wagon was not a Subraru Outback, oh no - it was the AMC Eagle (AMC later being purchase by Chrysler). http://www.users.nac.net/gr/eagleweb/ Subaru's claim has always bugged the hell out of me.
Outside of america.
Nearly all plants use Just In Time manufacturing and can make unique options or a batch of special runs.
Some plants like the ones in Australia that make the Ford Falcon and Holden commodore have moved part suppliers on site, so they can make the product as per demand as per vechical.. Some as quick as 1 hr!
Not only that they seem to be able to handle industrial desputes reasonably well and supply shortages.
As for component incompatability. Nissan is famous for it.. gearboxes, brakes, suspension, engines, panels, lights, wheels etc etc etc
If I could afford it I would buy one.
New if you discount GM and Ford's initiatives in South America, where they already assemble complete cards from subassemblies from suppliers and they have for years.
but wait, that can't happen here in the land of the UAW... well these guys have found a way to make it work. It's no coincidence that the Sr. Execs at BTO are the same folks who did it for the Big 2.
I predict a short run advantage for them before they are bought and/or crushed.
their biggest hurdles are wide distribution and service/support, and if they clear them they will be reabsorbed by one of these monstrous auto co's and make a mint in the process.
Best of luck to BTO Auto.
pretty neat even if it is the "white box parts method" of car integration oh wait starting at $35,000.
Ravi
When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
A car that cannot be stolen? nano tech body that cannot be scratched too
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
I would also be concerned about quality. The vendors he uses will not consider him a big customer, so he may not get the best service. Likewise, since every automobile is different, he will have to instill a culture of independence and perfection in his assemblers. It will require an attention to detail and skill that is not prominent in the US mass market culture.
And who will do the warranty work. This will have to contracted out, and will not generate much business for the people doing the contract. Customer service will suffer, or the contractor will do unnecessary warranty work and profits will suffer.
Finally, I wonder if he thinks he will have cash customers. I wonder if banks are going to provide loans for such cars. And, since many cars in this price range are leased, I wonder if anyone would provide a lease for a car with unknown residual value.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Plenty of models mentioned on the smart website, too. And yes, you can pop off the panels and pop in new ones with different colors. Just like on the Saturn ION's strip above the doors, on better-executed.
Two workers assemble each Mustang Cobra's engine from the block up, sign it, then walk to the front of the line again to start a new one. Chrysler's Viper engine is assembled by 8 people, total, from dropping the block on the line to cold testing it at the end. Every worker is considered a repairman, since they can all do any of the other jobs on that line. (But generally they stick to one station for weeks at a time.)
Don't worry, in about 20 years from now, all corporations in the world will be a "Subsidiary of the Microsoft Corporation"
Troll
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
this is actually of car buying in the rest of the world is done. you order your options and wait several months to get your car.
BMW is probably the only manufactuer that sells cars in america that does this, plus they have BMW individual which lets people get any color/seat combo etc. I ordered my M3 this way and waited several months. Most other auto companys just allow dealers to search stock elsewhere or check future allocations, but don't allow custom ordering.
Bring back the old version of slashdot.
I have been a car guy longer than I've been a geek. Automobile magazine had an article last year about how you couldn't tell one mid-size car from the next because it looked like they were all cut with the same cookie cutter. I WANT ONE!!
This parrot has ceased to be!