The first cars mostly shared something in common. They were largely built by coach builders... the guys that built horse drawn coaches. In fact, a luxury car was usually ordered as nothing but a chassis with an engine, and perhaps the hood and front fenders. The rest of the bodywork and the interior was hand built by a coach builder. Companies like Cadillac, Lincoln, Chrysler and others primarily built chassis for very high end clients. It wasn't until later that they introduced standardized models.
For a while in the 1920s and 1930s (in some cases, as late as the 1940s), there was something in between the fully custom, one-off coach cars and an assembly line, mass-produced cars... the catalog car. For these, a buyer would wander into his local dealer and selected a chassis. Then, the dealer would bring out a giant catalog. The buyer would then get to select from as many as 40 or 50 possible designs. There would range from convertibles to formal sedans (or saloon cars... these are the ones with an enclosed area for the passengers and an open cockpit for the driver). After selecting the basic design, they would be able to specify everything from colors to the materials for seating and trim.
While the full custom cars were incredibly expensive for their time... often a range (inflation adjusted) of several hundred thousand dollars, the catalog cars were much less expensive... depending on materials and options, possibly as low as a couple hundred thousand. Assembly line luxury cars were still much less expensive... and much less exclusive... and much less luxurious.
This is something I would love to see come back. There are a few hurdles that would need to be cleared, and some might be almost impossible to deal with... but I think that the concept could once again be implemented.
The first problem is that almost nobody builds cars on a chassis anymore. They are almost exclusively built as uni-bodies. This means that the body and frame are one piece. So, a manufacturer would have to design a chassis in order to build like this.
The next problem would be crash standards. Major manufacturers have to crash test numerous cars in order to meet safety standards. But, the Automotive X-Prize accepted computer modeling of crashing rather than requiring that actual cars be crashed. As computer modeling gets more sophisticated, it may be better than crashing actual cars. It can be done numerous times and things like secondary crashes can be modeled and controlled.
Finally... cost. There is a limited market for extremely high end luxury cars... not many people are wandering into ANY dealership looking to drop a couple hundred thousand dollars on a luxury car.
On the flip side, this could be a boon to help catapult an automaker to the top of the luxury market. With VERY small production run, VERY exclusive cars, in which the customer gets to choose almost every aspect of the details of the car, the builder would be seen as the pinnacle of luxury auto-builders. Of course, the cars would have to be of near perfect quality, and incredible materials.
To top it off, each car should come with a plate that states the name of the person for whom it was built.
Short of that, the automakers should encourage people to actually order their cars instead of just buying off the lot. Reduce delivery times, give discounts (it is cheaper for the dealer and the manufacturer since the car only has to be on the lot for enough time to clear up for delivery) and extra incentives.
from LaneBailey.com
