With thousands of vehicles in our inventory, we’re here to help make car research easier for you. We’ve partnered with car review experts from Edmunds to weigh in on what matters most when you’re looking to buy a truck or car.
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A big part of the car-buying process is making sure you're getting all the features you want. This sounds fairly obvious in theory, but in practice, it can be challenging for those new to buying cars or unfamiliar with auto industry jargon. Each automaker has its own terminology and hierarchy for how it names and equips the trim levels on its vehicles. Then there are cases when a shopper might want certain features from a higher trim but not quite everything else that comes with going up in the range.
This is where car options and packages come in. These features add to the content that comes standard on any given trim level. This information is easy to spot on a new car since it's found on the window sticker, but when you're shopping used, it requires a bit of a deeper dive. Here's what you need to know about car options and packages and how to identify them on a vehicle you're interested in.
Stand-alone Car Options
Options are features that weren't included as standard equipment on the vehicle. Examples of items that appear as options are: a panoramic sunroof, an alternate engine, different wheels, a fancier color paint, four-wheel drive, and more.
Depending on the vehicle or manufacturer, some trims aren't eligible for options, and some upper trims may not need options because they already have all the features.
Shopping tip: Individual options on a used car should be relatively easy to spot if the shopping website has good photos. They might also be listed in the vehicle features and specs section of the listing. If you're looking at the vehicle in person, keep an eye out for the option you're interested in. Pop the hood, open up the sunroof, or check if there are controls for all-wheel drive.
Packages
Packages are several options that are bundled together, often with a common theme. Here are some common examples.
A technology package might include a larger touchscreen, an upgraded audio system, or automated driver-assist features.
An off-road package might add four-wheel drive, upgraded shock absorbers, off-road tires, and underbody armor to protect the fuel tank and other components.
A towing or payload package, usually found on trucks, includes items such as a tow hitch, a wiring harness for lights, a trailer brake controller, and sometimes a revised axle ratio.
Cold-weather packages might add a heated steering wheel, headlight washers, all-weather floor mats, and an engine heater.
The names of these features will vary greatly. Sometimes they'll have an obvious name, such as "Tech package," while others might label them something like "Equipment group 402A."
How can you tell if a feature you want is part of a trim, an option, or a package? This may require some online legwork. You can start with the research pages on either CarMax or our partner Edmunds. Select your year, make, and model. The vehicle overview should have a section detailing which features came standard on the car at each trim level. If you know for a fact that a feature exists but isn't on the standard features, then it was likely an option or part of a package. Similarly, if you're looking at two vehicles with the same trim, and one has a feature that the other doesn't, it was likely an option. If there are several differences, it likely involved a package.
Shopping tip: The trick here is to hone in on a "must-have" feature you want and look for it in the dealer's inventory. For example, let's say you wanted a power liftgate on a 2023 Toyota RAV4. It was a standard feature on the XLE Premium. That was a stand-alone trim level that model year above the XLE, but it might be priced above your budget.
Use the filters on CarMax's inventory page to narrow the search by feature. In this scenario, the liftgate is referred to as "Power hatch/Decklid." Once the list of vehicles has been narrowed down, you'd see that a few regular RAV4 XLE models come up in the search results. It turns out that the "power hatch" was a part of the "XLE Convenience Package" that year, which also included a moonroof. And the icing on the cake is that this particular model cost less than a comparable XLE Premium.
To recap, not every 2023 RAV4 XLE will come with a power liftgate, but if you find one with a moonroof, it's easy to tell that it has the XLE Convenience package, which includes not just the power liftgate but also a few other upgrades.
Dealer Installed Options, aka Accessories
Accessories (also called dealer-installed options) are vehicle parts and features that dealerships sell and install. These items are often added when either the dealership or the customer wants to make a vehicle stand out. These dealer-installed options can range from cosmetic parts, such as alloy wheels, to roof racks, running boards, or even performance parts.
Shopping tip: Since accessories are less common than options and packages, you likely won't come across as many in your search.
It's Easier Than It Seems
If all this feels a bit overwhelming, here's something to put your mind at ease. As long as you focus on the features you want, rather than trying to learn all the trim levels on a given model, you should end up with the right car for you.
Ronald Montoya has worked in the automotive industry since 2008, writing hundreds of car-shopping articles on topics ranging from buying, selling, leasing, electric vehicles, maintenance, and more. He has also worked at multiple car dealerships and has bought and sold over 100 vehicles. Ronald is a senior writer at Edmunds, where he brings his passion for cars and finds ways to distill that knowledge to the average shopper.
Edmunds is a wholly owned subsidiary of CarMax.
