Clessy - A 17 SE 5 speed is what I wanted 3 years ago. I agree it is the nicest. I think I almost hooked one that had the Upgraded sound system too (forget the brand).
Dodge Ares K - It's been a while since I've been in automotive. It may not be apparent, but there are BUILD mistakes made on vehicles every day. I don't mean stuff like forgetting a clip or stripping a screw. I mean stuff like laying in the wrong wire harness somewhere in the vehicle, for example.
Sometimes those things can be easily dealt with. Sometimes they are catastrophic, and require the complete teardown of a vehicle. Imagine a main wire harness that goes under the carpet gets added but it is for a vehicle with a manual seat. And say the vehicle being built has a power seat. The seats are close to the last things installed. If they put the seat in and find no power connector available to power the seat because they've got the wrong wire harness, they're in a world of hurt. I've seen Hyundai just crush brand new vehicles (with a track-hoe ... quite entertaining) versus the labor / time / expense related to rebuild. I agree a loaded out Mirage with a 5 speed would be awesome. But guys like us that may pay for all the options and then want a 5 speed may be few and far between.
So, they try to limit build variation AT ALL COST, to reduce the chance of a catastrophic build failure as described above. Toyota was very effective like that. Hyundai, meh it happened on an occasion. Frequently the "pool" cars, those turds we'd move around the outside (sometimes inside) of the plant with, within the confines of the FTZ were such reject cars. We had one that was completely missing some kind of critical suspension component. They didn't even want to repair that. Drove just fine around the plant.
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View my fuel log 2020 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 42.4 mpg (US) ... 18.0 km/L ... 5.6 L/100 km ... 50.9 mpg (Imp)