For this, I think it also matters how people view the car, the class of car, and the cost of waiting or goi g somewhere else.

If you're buying a cheap car to get you from point a to point b and you don't care about amenities, what does it matter? Will that civic the next town over make you much happier than the corolla in front of you (or vice versa, or whatever)? Some people just don't care about cars, or at least not for the type of car they are buying for that use at that point in their life.

Nobody can care about everything all the time, and sometimes people just decide not to sweat the things other people think are vitally important because they have other stuff they care more about.

I was so picky and spent months looking for my car. To the point the dealers were getting a bit irritated. When I finally picked I was asked what colour. “Don’t care. What do you have on the lot?”

True, if you really don't care at all then just buy the closest one. But in my (limited) experience with buying cars, once you figure out what will meet your needs, there's usually a significant value difference between the available vehicles and it seems silly to give up several thousand dollars worth of vehicle for the sake of one slightly longer journey.

Sometimes. For middle-of-the road needs and reliability, it's hard to go wrong with Honda or Toyota, and at the lowest level of vehicle that only leaves you a couple choices. If I was in that position and didn't know a lot about cars, I might just go to whichever dealership was closest that had one, test drive what they had, and if nothing really negative jumped out, buy it.

The more money you're willing to spend the more good choices there are at that level though, so this becomes harder to do when not operating at the lowest cost tier of cars.

This does change a did if people are willing to consider less traditional choices, like smart cars.