Originally Posted by Sy Reene

When you refer to place of manufacture being China or Taiwan, I assume you mostly mean the frames; though perhaps Shimano is manufacturing there as well, or Vittoria tires or FSA cranks, etc.. The point being I was comparing to Ribble or Planet X who assemble (or at least Ribble indicates it's so) their bikes at their UK plants.. no need to look for comparisons to the auto industry. Sure it might be cheaper to offer limited options -- eg. Nashbar offers a single 105 and Ultegra version of a carbon road bike, but these come with no choices of wheels, stems, handlebars, saddle, tires, etc.. all items Nashbar sells anyway. Why not at the very least throw in the dropdowns to give customers options to build bike with different cockpits etc.. Nashbar could throw an extra $10-20 on each item's retail price (less the stock equipment cost) to do the labor to swap out; people probably willing to pay this to avoid the hassle.