[Fat Charlie]

Most "options" are really trim levels. The base comes with these, the next up adds some, etc. It's mass production, not a la carte- just try getting the nice trim features with the small (cheap) engine and manual (cheap) transmission sometime!

If a feature is available from the factory, like remote start or a sunroof, it's generally cheaper to get it that way- unless you have to get a higher trim level to do it. But they may do accessories as part of an order like that, which is different than including the accessories as part of the deal. The real downside here is that you generally have to buy the car when you order it. Every accessory added to a car reduces its market (I love the car, but the XYZ on it doesn't excite me. I see it's a $500 add on, can you yank it and take $500 off?), and this is going to be a you specific car- so they probably won't order it unless you're paying that day- why should they be on the hook for your dream car and hope you don't buy something else in the meantime? It also puts you on the dealer's back burner because the sale was already made.

Check out the factory web site and look it up at cars.com or something- filter by exactly what you want and it'll show you how reasonable your dream list of features is, where the nearest ones are and give you an idea as to what they're asking for it. The easiest (and probably best in the long run) is to tell them what you want and if they don't have it on the lot, ask if they can get one with a dealer swap. You won't get a deal on the car because they've got more costs, but you're getting exactly the car you want from the local dealer. Being in their system as having bought it there can pay off huge in intangibles down the road- if there's one part left and two customers need it, who do you think gets it?

You can find exactly the car you want, you can buy what's available and try to turn it into exactly what you want, or you can just settle. None of those are necessarily bad moves, as long as you know what you really want and how much you want it. I wanted a sunroof in my Subaru, but I didn't want to also pay for leather or go aftermarket. I wanted steering wheel audio controls and heated mirrors on my Fit, but I didn't want to pay for a Sport or hack it for them. So while neither was my ideal car, each was exactly the car I decided to buy.