So I guess we won't be driving a Yaris...

[Thirty-Nine]

It's quite frustrating, eh?

The way it was explained to me is that Toyota figures out what the most popular option packages are (possibly by region?), and decides it'll sell those in specific areas. Take rates on manual transmission cars are about 8% across the board; small cars are a bit higher.

As someone else mentioned earlier on in the thread, Toyota (and most other manufacturers) don't make much profit at all on small cars, so they don't prioritize them. To me, this is short-term thinking with regards to sales. A lot of people will return to a dealer (and or recommend family/friends to a dealer) or recommend a certain car brand because of a good experience. Maybe you've heard people say, "You have a good experience, you tell five people. You have a bad experience, you tell 500 people."

My guess is your dealer could probably have put out a locator on the car you wanted, even if it was outside of your area so they could get you what you wanted. You may have had to pay (or negotiate your way out of paying) a transportation fee to bring the car to your area. However, it doesn't sound like that option was even offered up.