So sticking with Mazda, on a Mazda 3 Select (includes dual zone automatic climate control), which has a dealer invoice price in the $22k range, backing out Mazda Corporate's current gross profit margin of roughly 21% leaves us with roughly a $17k vehicle cost for Mazda. You're saying that $1k of that, or almost 6% of the total cost of the car is in the upgrade from manual to automatic climate control. I find that extremely doubtful.
Just to add, at retail, there is a $1,200 increase to go from S to Select, which includes all of the below. That does not seem to line up with the first item costing the manufacturer over $1,000.
- Dual zone automatic climate control.
- Upgrade from 16" to 18" wheels
- Upgrade to Advanced keyless entry system
- Blind Spot Monitoring
- Mirror turn signal indicators
- Rear center arm rest with cup holders
- Leatherette sport seats
- Leather wrapped steering wheel and shifter
One more addition, why is it possible to get it to hang or shut down at all? Shouldn't any pressing of buttons also turn off the Auto setting? It's not like I can input custom code, there are fixed buttons that the computer should be able to properly respond to.