^^^what he said^^^

Many sub assemblies may be made by subcontractors, but you still need to deal with other issues (and unions are one of them)

 

you'll find more of the options you want on a limited, although loaded XLT's are out there just in much smaller numbers.

my '00 limited Ex had heated seats and my '02 limited Ex does not...riddle me that one!

 

Is the pigtail for the heated seats under the seats?

See, I'm not the only one.

It's usually the Japanese manufacturers that have all the plugs available. My Mazda RX-7 had all the plugs there for power options. Ditto with my wife's Mazda MPV minivan. (The engine says Ford Cleveland Engine Plant.)

 

nope! going to have aftermarket heaters installed here soon.

 

Personally, I believe the foreign auto brands have many many more dealer installed options vs. domestic brands, which would require more factory wiring be present to allow this The domestic brands also do a fair amount of customer orders vs. my perception, that the import brands rarely have customers order, perhaps because of production schedule/vehicle allocation?

 

I think it would be way easier to install aftermarket options than trying to install factory ones. Probably cheaper as well

 

GM trucks from the late 90's to the early 00's liked to use sub-harnesses for their options. For instance, an overhead console would have its own harness with it's wiring going out to a sensor for the temp reading and the main power input is a plug that plugs into the truck's power distribution.

To me, this would be the most economical solution for a manufacturer- the main vehicle harness covers everything stock, and maybe plugs for the most common additions, then sub-harnesses for options or groups of options. Either way, there are only two main truck harnesses- gas and diesel.

Maybe the Excursion uses something similar?

On one of the Gm trucks I worked on (can't remember the year)- the shortbed taillight harness was exactly the same length as the longbed- the only difference was in the way it was taped...