Online car configurators - or rather the lack of.

dogmatix

It can be nice during your lunchbreak to surf the net and build your dream car or your budget supermini etc… But amazingly in this day and age there are still some companies that do not have car configurators (aka – “build your own model”) on their websites. Kia and Hyundai are one, Peugeot another. If I was buying a new car I’d like to add various trims, engines, accessories etc.. to get a price for my new car before heading into the dealership to strike a deal.

I can accept a budget brand like Dacia not having a configurator but a “mainstream” brand not to have one in 2017 does not reflect well on that company – well to me at any rate. Not having a configurator on their website would mean I would not even bother to consider that particular brand unless I really wanted that specific car or make.

Would this be a factor with other people when buying a new car?

dar83

Personally Kia, Hyundai and Peugeot would be brands I wouldn't consider buying anyway, so I'm guessing there's something in their demographic and/or target market that shows that the customer doesn't want/use an online configurator tool. It would be smart for all manufacturers to have something in place in this day and age, but taking Hyundai as an example, they seem to be doing well enough without one (I've not checked but I take your word for it).

witless_steve

The younger the demographic the brand for the more likely to find a car configurator.
Young uns do love to customise their wheels with funky options.

freddieot

At the premium end I see BMW, Audi, Jag and Volvo all have some sort of config system. The one on the Mercedes website has never worked, one of the reasons I've ruled them out twice when buying a new car.

colm_mcm

Often they want to sell you what they have in stock or on order rather than have you build a unique car.

Truckermal

Kia and Hyundai seem to come with certain trim levels and that's it not like Audi/BMW where you have a host of options.

They presumably cost time and money to build and maintain.

If the options are limited there isn't much value to add over a brochure.

witless_steve

You might have your eye set on something the dealer doesn't have and doesn't want to order because they won't get in delivered in time to make their sales targets.

Mantis Toboggan

In fairness to Kia and hyundai a lot of them come fully loaded as standard.