"Have it your way." "Made to order." These are phrases our culture has come to embrace. When it comes to buying a new car, I'm often asked about special ordering. People want a certain color, feature, or option that will make their car unique or better for them. Unfortunately, when it comes to cars, it's just not that simple. Here's why.

Usually automakers will not accept new vehicle orders during the last two or three months of the production year. Production years usually end in the last few months of summer, depending on the model and manufacturer. This means that they won't take orders between April and August, the last few months of the production year. Prime car selling season, the time of year when the deals are best, happens to coincide with most order blackout periods. So, you often can't special order when the deals are best.

With some manufacturers there's no point in doing a special order. A lot of companies make cars overseas, and because these cars have to travel across the ocean, there's more than just the standard two-month to complete the special order - there's also the two-month shipping time. Because of the amount of time it takes, overseas manufactures don't really like to do special orders. If it's even possible to order a car, it's often strongly discouraged.

There are some auto manufacturers that only offer certain features (like a sunroof for instance) as part of a "package." This package may include some features you don't want, and you may want to special order your car so you can buy the feature without having to buy the whole package. Unfortunately, a lot of auto manufacturers are unwilling to accomodate this request (Honda and Toyota are famous for offering certain options only as part of a larger package). Make sure you find out first, but sometimes you can't really order what you want.

If you just have to have a specific feature, then you should special order a car. You must realize, however, that doing so may decrease your vehicle's resale value. When you order a vehicle that's truly special and unique, it could be difficult to find someone who wants to buy your car later. People want cars that look like all the other cars out there. Consider this before you order features that make you car really different.

Finally, before you special order a new car, consider buying a car off the lot. Although you may have to compromise on things like features or color, you will probably get a better deal. Most of the time, buying a car from the lot is the best deal. Dealers pay interest on all the cars on their lot, so they want to sell those cars quickly as possible. If they don't, their inventory costs them quite a bit of money in finance charges. So dealers will discount what they have now before they discount something two months out.

It used to be that you could special order whatever kind of car you wanted, but those days are fading fast. Dealers want you to buy what they have, auto manufacturers often don't want to honor special requests, and shipping times and production cycles have conspired to make ordering cars very difficult. Special ordering just isn't what it used to be.

Cars and Trucks Products on our marketplace

Author Jason Lancaster, a car business veteran, created AccurateAutoAdvice.com. You'll find accurate advice on ordering a new car and how much to pay for a new car.