Interesting point regarding emissions. I’d never considered the factor of weight for each of the many combinations.johnd wrote: ↑Tue Dec 24, 2019 10:23 am Aren't most manufacturers going down the pack route, especially over the past few months? I see two reasons cited:
Stricter emissions rules seem to have come into effect recently. 'Stricter' in the sense that the car makers have less latitude to offer options that might affect emissions (eg extra weight, rolling resistance etc) without specifically testing the emissions on that variant. So options are grouped within packs or trim levels to lessen the amount of testing needed.
Second, all makers are under serious cost pressure. One of the ways they can reduce production costs is by offering fewer custom or individual options, especially by dropping the lower-demand options as separate items.
It would be quite a surprise if Porsche manage to avoid these pressures completely. And while I can see the downside of packs in reducing choice, they also have a potential upside in helping resale values, at least a little, especially if the packs are marketed in discrete trim levels - the higher trim levels will always be worth a bit more than the base models.
The reason I like packs is because a) they seem to offer more stuff for less, presumably because it reduces variation in production and therefore cost, and b) buying a used vehicle becomes simpler, knowing there are fewer variations available. I can see why people would be against them though.
