We’ve been in the age of options packages for decades now, but it’s starting to feel like things have gone too far.
Today Toyota lent us a brand-new Camry, and being a press car, it was spec’d out to be basically the top of the line. That means a black roof over the white body and (along with a 301-horsepower V6 and a $38,xxx price tag) a red leather interior. We are a long way from all-silver Camrys with nothing but cloth interiors, working like family haulers. Crossovers do that now.
But going through the configurator, reader Dr. Martin van Nostrand noticed something troubling:
I’m sorry, this paint is sending us over the edge. Is this really what’s screwing with cool colors on new cars? All of the optioning? What has happened to us, as a society? Can’t we incentivize this? Have we lost our sense of style?