Recently, we featured a road test of the new Audi S5, and the process of writing it gave me an excuse to engage in an underrated pastime: playing with car configurators.

All in the name of research, you understand. Not time-wasting. Not at all.

The thing with cars like the S5 is that you don’t just have to restrict yourself to the pedestrian UK version; you can indulge in the much fuller-featured German one.

Who needs Duolingo when audi.de can teach you useful words like ‘Außengeräuschdämmung’ and ‘Kopfstützenlautsprecher’? Once you can make sense of the endless compound words, what’s striking is how much more choice of options and customisation buyers get on the mainland.

Mercedes-Benz is probably an even better example of this than Audi. Take the C-Class. Over here, you get a handful of trim levels (mostly AMG Lines of some description), you can choose a paint colour and an interior colour and that’s it.

In Germany, if you want a C180 that looks like poverty spec on the outside but has every conceivable option inside, with brown nappa leather and adaptive dampers? Good luck trying to resell it later, but it’s your depreciation: go for it.

It’s the same at BMW, which won’t sell you a diesel 5 Series at all in the UK but still offers a 540d (with a straight six) in Germany. This isn’t a new development. Choice has been restricted in the UK for years.

I’ve been told this is largely due to the UK market being driven very strongly by monthly rates and therefore residual values. As such, it’s easier to determine (and maximise) the values for a couple of select trim levels and a handful of option packs rather than a million different individual configurations.

Although there may be some chicken or egg going on here, British buyers generally seem to be more cautious and fashion-driven than European buyers, gravitating towards restrained interior colours but big wheels and some sort of sporty exterior styling.

Complain all you want that cars are getting too expensive: posh trims are what people are buying, even on Dacias.

There’s also clearly more of a trend to buy cars from stock here rather than custom order, which shows in the size of dealerships: they tend to be a lot bigger.

Meanwhile, the product planners have got wise to the fact that they simply don’t need to offer so many variations: it makes things easier for them and means more profit.

I’ve always found it odd that there’s evidently not more demand for individual specifications here, because when I’m spending my imaginary lottery win, it’s so much more satisfying to build the car exactly how I want it, rather than go with the spec that some UK product planner reckoned would be ideal.

Surely that’s one of the big appeals of buying new? I imagine it’s the same when you’re spending real money. But apparently not: although Porsche customers get a little more creative with the brand’s famously extensive configurator, there are still an awful lot of silver 911s with a black interior around.

In the end, it’s a matter of use it or lose it. When we road tested the current E-Class, Mercedes UK said it wouldn’t offer air suspension (which was available abroad) because it didn’t expect there to be much demand for it.

But earlier this year, the Refinement Package appeared in the configurator, which includes air suspension and rear-wheel steering. Evidently, people must have badgered their dealers because they wanted their luxury car to ride properly.

If you’re in the market for a new car, demand the Multikontursitze mit Sitzklimatisierung and say no to the Tiefergelegtes Fahrwerk. Do it for the dreamers – and your spine.