A fantastic response!

I read somewhere that something like one third of the SRT-4's out there....have at least one of the Mopar performance stages installed.

 

I think Toyota also offers a TRD blower on a few of their vehicles. They have other parts as well, and they can be dealer added and rolled onto your standard warranty and financing. Correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe they do this as well.

Would be nice if we could customize our cars through dealers/factory options and roll everything on top of the financing.

 

It helps that this set of parts costs only $399!

 

It also helps that the car in question is turbo.

Minor bolt-ons = killer gains.

 

True!

Methinks that Mopar is still missing out on the other half of the equation.

I'm die-hard "Buy American", no ifs, ands, or buts, but even I will admit that Harley-Davidson and Buell have had significant issues with reliability compared to Japanese makes in the past. The difference between Harley-Davidson and Buell and the Japanese makes is that you buy an APPLIANCE from the Japanese, you buy an EXPERIENCE and a CULTURE from Harley-Davidson. You become part of a family!

That's the Achilles heel of the Japanese manufacturers. Up until last year, and the advent of the truly custom motorcycle, Harley-Davidson sold EVERY bike they made, at or over list price. No Japanese make has pulled that one off.

Image is part of it, and so are tons of other things, but Harley and Buell make you part of a community with their machines. Chevrolet does some of this with the F-body gathering at Bowling Green, and Red Planet is terrific where this is concerned - and an all-around great advocate for the machine he loves.

I think Red gets it, but unlocking the tumblers within GM to make this an even bigger part of the Chevrolet experience would be a gargantuan task - maybe more than can be expected of a platoon of GM enthusiasts within the company.

Lutz dances around this by trying to sell passion, and the Solstice is a good example. Just take it to the next step now.

Camaro, Solstice, GTO, Corvette, CTSv, and a few other cars have the potential to do the same thing as Harley-Davidson.

Have open houses, arrange ride and drives and cruises, have more events like M8 and the F-bod gathering. Create owners groups with benefits, send folks magazines quarterly talking about their cars. Make it easy to personalize the car both performance-wise and appearance-wise. Test certain aftermarket parts to GM standards and recommend them as installations WITHOUT voiding the warranty until GMPP can step up to the plate enough to do the whole thing.

 

Ford has been doing that for a few years.. I was going to buy a Mustang and have them put a higher gear ratio in the stang. Gm is just behind the game..

 

My in-laws just bought a Mini. They ended up getting $6,000 in options and accesories . They showed me the "accessory" book and it was freakin' huge...

Clear tail lights, red tail lights (no amber) grill fog lights, bonnet stripes, wheel packages, ground effects, cat back exhaust, spoilers, different grills, interior bits and pieces... TONS of stuff.

So anyway, all of this stuff can be put into the initial purchase price, and I have to say it looked like fun going through and picking all these details as part of the standard purchasing process.

Ford already has a giant catalog and they didn't even give me one when I bought my Mustang, so you can see the lost opportunity there.

As a side note, I know Subaru also sells tons of accesories including short throw shifters, exhaust systems, and other stuff. I think GM does do well with this stuff - WITH HUMMERS!