[WONT]Localization and related expenses

[Arakash]

I may be able to propose something that may fit your requirements using current (or near future) mechanics.
I believe Eric has mentioned that eventually the customers will have certain preferences for certain types of components. For example, they prefer a 4 cylinder over a 1.
Perhaps you could have these preferences be roughly country based(practically city based) to heavily penalize designs outside of the design code/requirements.
Not an ideal solution, but its a thought i had.

I may be misinterpreting what you're suggesting here but it doesn't really seem appropriate. A markets tastes and rules are two different things a manufacturer has to contend with and I don't really think there's a way to make one system cover both.
If you don't match a markets tastes your sales will suffer but if you don't meet it's rules then you wont be allowed to sell there at all.
Also, the cost of meeting a new markets taste could be nothing, Japanese manufacturers didn't have to change their designs much at all to meet local tastes when first breaking into European markets but they (most likely, I can't actually support this claim with hard evidence) would have had to spend a decent amount of time and money meeting the regulations.

..... Er, actually, I think I worked out what you meant and I think it could work.
Actually, it's a pretty good idea!

Yeah, its a solution which i would describe as pretty makeshift, but im always keen to try and suggest ways of implementing things with current mechanics, even if its just brainstorming.

I still think your original solution is a far cleaner way of doing it.

I asked Eric a Q on IRC about the country based stuff and i think it confirmed my suspicion that they dont really exist as entities. This is going to make several of the other suggestions that are country based more difficult to implement imo.