To have your car your way, order it

By DAVID THOME Special to ADAMM

When a customer wants a vehicle in a specific color or with a combination of features that isn’t on the lot, car sellers routinely hunt through the inventories of far-flung dealers for the right model. They usually find what the customer is looking for and arrange to get it from another dealership – but if they can’t, ordering a custom-built car from the manufacturer may be an option.

“In the 1970s, before I started selling cars, I worked on a car assembly line,” said John Bappert, sales consultant for ROSEN Nissan Kia in Milwaukee. “It was pretty common for every car coming down the line to be a little different because each one was ordered by someone who wanted it to be a certain way.”

The website RealCarTips.com says that as recently as two years ago, 15% – or one out of seven – U.S. buyers specialordered new vehicles. Bappert and other local sales pros, though, say that special orders now count for less than 10% of all new-car sales – and it’s possible for a store to go an entire month without any special orders. The reason, they say, is that many safety, convenience, performance and tech features that used to be optional are now standard, even on lower-priced models.

“If a customer is looking for something very particular,” said Tom Dasko, business development center Internet manager for GORDIE BOUCHER Ford Lincoln of West Bend, “we look first at other Boucher stores, then at a wider network of dealers. But if we can’t find the exact thing the customer wants, we’ll do a special order. It happens with vehicles up and down the line.”

Nate Hansen, a motoring adviser for MINI at INTERNATIONAL AUTOS of West Allis, said that dealers prefer to keep vehicles on their lots that appeal to a broad range of customers, but, “not everyone wants the same thing. If someone wants no options but a certain type of wheels, we may have to do a special order.”

Furthermore, Real Car Tips founder Gregg Fidan said that some types of vehicles, such as pickup trucks, are available in such a wide array of packages, trim levels and configurations “that it’s impossible for a dealer to stock them all. You may have a difficult time finding some obscure option you want – and special ordering may be the only way to get it.”

The biggest advantage to special ordering is that you’ll get to equip a vehicle with the exact options and colors you desire, Fidan said. The biggest disadvantage is that you may have to wait anywhere from two or three weeks to two or three months to take delivery.

“The waiting time varies,” Hansen said. “It depends on whether there’s a produc

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