Hard luck, Humph

Choice is good, make the most of it while you can.

Europe is effectively down to four manufacturers now (VAG, Stelantis, BMW & Mercedes - is Renault still an independent or is that now under the Nissan banner ?), the Americans have runfer d'hills, Chrysler gone, GM sold Opel/Vauxhall to Stelantis and Ford down to bare bones Puma, Kuga, Mach-e and Ranger. If you want an affordable, European, family car your choice might come down to a lion, chevrons, lightning bolt, griffin or acronym on the steering wheel.

What a time to be alive !

Yes. Happens in other areas too. I bought a new and entirely unnecessary mechanical watch late last year, and researching that took me into the world of the 'in-house movement'. To summarise, there are companies that make movements, which they sell to other companies to build into watches. But a few companies (not always the ones you might expect) make the movements for their own watches, and a certain kind of watch snob regards such machinery as superior. The Eberhard I've worn for 15 years (and still enjoy) has a bought-in movement and seems none the worse for it.

As it happens, the watch I chose has both bought-in and in-house versions, and I judged that the in-house one had real-world practical benefits (ironic, I know, in a thing as impractical as a mechanical watch) so I went for that. Although the watch world exists in a set of groups not unlike the car industry, so the bottom half of the internet isn't convinced it deserves the title. But I like it as it is, so that's OK. 

The bought in versus the in-house argument is interesting.

Bought-in implies absolute expertise in that one area and the buyer can choose from a variety of models and levels of quality control. Similar to various components in a car I suppose.

In-house implies suited for that purpose exactly with no compromise but that may mean that leading edge technology comes late to the party.

Does it matter?

Y’see, we’re just about to set off in the direction of a forest with bikes on the top of the car and all manner of mainly superfluous but pleasing kit in the boot.
Two seater wouldn’t really cut that would it.
Irritating, a bit anyway.
😉

I think there are watch buyers who want their movement fashioned by a gnarled artisan using only a hacksaw and a file, not stamped out in the hundreds of thousands on a CNC machine. And these people imagine that these two methods fall either side of the line between bought-in and in-house, which they really don't. My 'in-house' watch is very much a CNC product, just a less generic one than some. And you might argue that the big-name watch makers have an incentive to develop new technology - amagnetic balance wheels and silicon springs are a current example - to differentiate their own movements from the generic.

Cars are more complex, of course, and the entry barriers higher; it may once have been possible to order a car's worth of bits and assemble them in a shed (TVR springs to mind as the last of that line) but it's hard to imagine today. I don't imagine many car buyers would insist on an artisan-built battery or ECU, either. But in the mainstream, just as your Golf, Octavia, A3 or - erm, does Seat still exist? - is a different set of design, materials and quality control on the same mechanical base, a Tissot is essentially the same inside as a Certina or Hamilton, because they use the same 'in-group' movement. In either case, you just buy the one you like the look (or price) of. So, to return to BPG's point, there's less choice out there than many would imagine.

All true. Apart from the hurty-wristy bit, I expect you make a similar rationalisation for wearing Crocs. 😈