Nothing is free, but you are probably right that the cost differential
to include it would be very small.

However, base models of most vehicles have very skinny profit margins
and Honda hopes almost nobody buys the stripper version.  They take as
much out as possible in order to advertise a low price, then count on
the vast majority of people to pony up for the higher level vehicles in
order to get the long list of goodies.  Pretty basic modern marketing :(.

John

I just installed a tach on my 98 Civic LX (Canadian, so thats the cheap
version).  It cost me about $100 canadian, and took 15 minutes.  I'm very
impressed with the design, but it leaves me wondering, why don't they just
put a tach in all vehicles from the factory, especially if they are all
prewired for it?  I didn't have to run any wires at all, so its just a little
weird.  Like how much more could it cost to make all civic gauge clusters
with tachs?  When you factor in part reduction, probably about the same, no?

t