This is a question that has my curiosity. Did the common practice of having a car special ordered from the factory stop. Now-a-days it seems they check other dealerships for the car with the options requested and have it shipped but the common practice of special orders, are they banned? Did it end in 1977 as a ball park estimate, am I correct?
No, you can still order a new car. But that's just what it is. An ordered car. A "Special Order" car was one that had a deviation from what was a regular production option. Those days are gone. I ordered my last new truck. The dealer of course tried to locate one first. But once they gave up, they did order it in the color, trim and options I wanted. They reason they search first is that with option packages, there aren't many deviations anymore other tan color or option group. It's not like the old days when you could order a car with a power seat but with crank windows. Another reason that dealers don't want to order a new car or truck is inventory. If you cancel your order they get stuck with the vehicle. When I ordered my truck, I wanted a 2x4 version. The dealer balked as he didn't want to get stuck with a 2-wheel drive truck in New England winter inventory. When I told him I was leasing it, he agreed to order it. As a GMAC lease, if I backed out of the deal, GM takes it back. Of course dealers don't want to do leases anymore either. LOL A "special order" had to be verified with the factory. Cadillac used to let you do that. I have a 1974 managers ordering book that lists all kind of deviations from the sales catalog. Things like contrasting piping on the seats, two-toned colors for the interior, maximum leather so no vinyl trim was used, opera window delete on the limousines, even previous year exterior colors, ie: Mary Kay pink. Yup, those days are gone. Nowadays we are lucky to get offered Grey or Tan interiors. LOL
Well in 1999 my Wife wanted a Grand Prix GTP with the supercharged engine, but with a cloth interior, not leather. I saw it was available that way, and for a $700.00 Credit off the GTP price, She also wanted it in Bright Red with a tan interior and no sun roof. Well every GTP we looked at had leather, if they were the color she wanted they had a charcoal interior. Tan was available with that color. So we finally found a dealer that would order the car for us (3rd dealer!!!!) And it took over 6 months to get, and we also ordered the GTX option from SLP, and at the time most GTP's were 2 doors, and ours is a 4-door. So we think we have 1 of 1 built that way. Is it a special order? No, but GM did offer to upgrade the interior to leather for no charge, it has nothing that wasn't available on the order form. But is an unusual car.
I remember this with Holden in New Zealand in the seventies. I'm pretty sure you could have had a top-line Statesman with the 308 V8 and a three-speed column-mounted manual if you wanted. Also, later, until about 1995, Land Rover offered the Defender 110 with a special-order 3.5 litre V8. It's been diesel-only for some time now, more's the pity.
We ordered a new '06 PT Cruiser ragtop. We sat down with the sales guy, checked off the options we wanted, and he sent the order off to the factory for approval. It took us 4-1/2 months to get the car delivered; we got exactly what we ordered, and it was marked on the build sheet as a "special order car". Likewise, my old '96 Dodge Cummins was a special-order truck. Waited about two months for delivery on that one.
I wish more folks would have ordered Buick Roadmaster Wagons with Cloth Interior. I'm looking for one and I HATE LEATHER!!!!
Agreed. I hate leather too. When it is new, it smells nice, but that doesn't cancel out the frustration of sliding forward in the driving seat because it won't hold you or looking very scruffy after a comparatively short period of use. My Renault Clio has a basic cloth interior of the type common on small contemporary French cars. I have driven 70,000 miles in four years and the seats have not worn at all. Had they been leather, they would probably have needed recovering by now.
