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Cars used to be exactly like that. They all came one way from the manufacturer and you bought dealer installed options at the time you bought. All components were separate and easily changed/replaced. BUT due to labor savings abilities to make thousands of vehicles with a certain "package" at the factory, this is no longer the case. Try something simple like ordering a new car with navigation but NOT factory fog lights. Or try to get a manual transmission in anything but the econo model 4banger or top of the line sportscar. There are only 2-3 models that i know of and none of them american.
This is the way of the fat lazy Americans with more money than sense. Since they make up the largest section of the buying public, that is what the manufacturers are going to cater too. The gear head, the connoisseur, the gadget geeks that want things exactly the way they want them without compromise are left wanting. Individual wants and desires mean nothing any more. Whatever the masses dictate will become the rule.
It leaves the poor and even the middle class with a non-repairable car when that integrated electronics package dies. In some cases, the car will be immobilized.
Some of that makes sense. The wiring embedded in the car is not easy to customize, very few even know how to drive a stick shift (in the past you were not a manly man if you did not drive stick).... but one good thing is happening is as cars get more and more standardized it becomes possible to buy the extra pieces needed and install them yourself. For example, the lowly Yaris can have it's basic wiper control upgraded by replacing a few parts from a different car (I don't remember the exact model). The base model has the mounts and much if not all of the wiring in place for fog lights.
I was so happy when I discovered that the Yaris head unit can still be replaced with an after-market unit.
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