Well that's... interesting. Image: Ford Motor Company
A buddy of mine just had the wheels of his truck powder-coated in black. The result looks much more trick than the factory silver paint, and this prompted a question from my friend: “Why don’t manufacturers allow customers to choose things like custom painted wheels?” I tried to explain the intricacies of the manufacturing process, since I come from a product development background. I explained that it wouldn’t be cost effective for manufacturers to stock wheels in ten different shades of color, as it would increase production costs and (potentially) slow down the assembly process. My friend, on the other hand, wasn’t buying any of my counter-arguments. “If you give the buyer exactly what they want,” he pressed on, “they’d be more likely to buy and would be willing to spend more money.”
